Long Live
by xoxorosiexoxo
Summary: What would happen if the daughters of the previous Pretty Committee members finally got together...can you say DRAMA? Please Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, it's Rosie. I've decided to do a Clique fan-fiction, because I always find writing about the clique fun. This is just a short summary and a character list for now. I can have the first chapter up tonight if people review. I hope you like it! Enjoy!**

****Also, I could use some other characters, mostly guys. If you have any characters for me, PM me! I'm always open to new ideas and plotlines. Feel free to PM your thoughts to me as well. Thanks! **

Juliet Harrington- She's made to be an Alpha. And she knows it. Now that she's moved to Westchester, she's decided to rebuild the Pretty Committee, which was originally started by her mother. She's perfect in every way, with her blonde hair and blue eyes, sparkling personality, and ahmazing fashion sense. Now all she needs is to find the other girls to join and turn them into girls worthy of being in her presence. Then she has got to steal the school from the current leading group. Game on.

Halley Fisher- She's followed in her mother's early footsteps. Basically, she's a dork. She's got a pretty face and a sweet personality, but she's bland. She walks around school with a sketch book and pencils, her hair undone and no makeup on her face. She's just got to break out, like her mother once did. She needs to find her group, where she fits in. She knows she could rule the school, she just needs a little help.

Reilly Hotz- One word explains it all: fat. She's been fat her whole life. She wants to change it, but she doesn't know how. Her mother, Dylan Marvil, used to be fat too, but now she was a gorgeous, rail thin supermodel. Mommy dearest hates her daughter too, and promises that she will until she gets skinny. What fun. Now she just needs someone to help her, someone who actually cares. If only she wasn't a total loner.

Marisol Rivera- Everyone in Westchester knows her name. Not that it's a good thing. She's known as 'that slut'. She let herself fall for one boy, thinking they were meant to be, and let him take advantage of her. Now she's got a reputation she doesn't deserve, and no friends to call her own. She needs a major social boost to get back out there.

Spencer Solomon- Mommy and daddy are always away, living out their lives as famous sports stars. She spends her days at home, alone, with nothing to do, no friends to talk to. So she makes her own friends. Say hello to "Margarita" and "Tequila".

Nick Hamilton- The one and only child of Skye Hamilton, he's the most desirable guy at BOCD. Too bad he never lets any girl past the friend zone. He's old fashioned, no matter how cool he acts, and wants to wait for the girl of his dreams. Will one new girl be just that?

Ryan Abeley- His mom may be a hippie freak, but he sure isn't. He's one of the hottest guys in Westchester, and he loves it. He goes through girls like they're tic-tacs, gone in a matter of minutes. Maybe he could settle down for one girl…maybe not.

Adrian Ryan- He's a jock, end of story. Sports are his life, his love, his passion. He's never had a girlfriend. Sure, he's hooked up with girls plenty of times, but he wasn't one for commitment. It would take a girl with a lot of determination to break his shell.

Seth Briar- Such a sweet, sweet boy. Too bad no one thought he was 'cool' enough to go out with, or even speak to. One Summer can change a lot, though. When he gets back to BOCD, he plans to take charge…maybe with a hottie by his side?

**Prologue:**

BOCD hasn't had a Pretty Committee in years. As of right now, a group of nameless skanks rule the school. Those girls think they're the hottest people to walk the Earth. Well they've never met Juliet Harrington, or her new, upgraded girls that'll bring their perfect little world crashing down. Say hello to the new and improved Pretty Committee. You'd better be ready to worship the ground they walk on, or they'll _make_ you.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks everyone for the reviews! They made me so happy! I know these kind of stories have been done before, but I promise I'll try to change it up. As for the parents of the girls, you'll figure out most of the pairings in the next chapter. Also, Seth and Adrian don't have parents from the books, they're completely made up. **

**So, here's the first real chapter. I hope you like it! **

**Juliet's POV**

"Here we are!" I groaned. I did _not _want to be here. "It feels so good to be back in Westchester."

I rolled my eyes at my mom's overly excited, high-pitched voice. My dad opened up my car door and pulled me out, laying his arm around my shoulder. "Welcome to Westchester. Your years here will be the best of your life." I wrinkled my nose. My dad sounded like some high school freshman orientation, telling us a million lies of what they think will encourage us. It never works.

"I. Want. To. Go. Home." I hissed, glaring at my parents and not even bothering to look at the house I'd be living in. My dad stared down sternly at me. I held his stare, eyes burning.

"Let me talk to her." My mom muttered, shoving my dad aside. Her amber eyes locked on mine, sparkling. "Juliet, I know how upset you are. I'd be upset too if my parents made me move when I was 15. But what your dad says is true, these _will _be the best years of your life. Believe me, I would know. I made my mark here, made my best friends, met your father. I learned how to be on top here, and you will too." She looked to her side and gestured for my dad to start bringing in boxes. There weren't that many, because my mom had ordered all new furniture and I was buying a whole new set of clothes. She looked back down at me. "Remember my stories about the Pretty Committee?"

I nodded. My mom was-before she was married-Massie Block, _the _girl to be. Girls would give up an entire line of Louis Vuitton purses just to _talk _to her. Boys drooled just at hearing her name. "Sure. You ruled the school. You were the bitches not to mess with."

She nodded excitedly, her eyes glowing. "This is where the Pretty Committee reigned years ago, and where it will reign again. Starting today."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you talking about? You're 36, you can't rule a high school."

She chuckled. "No, Juliet. I mean _you. _I invited all of my old Pretty Committee best friends over tonight. They each have a daughter your age." She smiled, pure happiness easily seen on her face. "_You _are going to recreate the Pretty Committee. You'll be the alpha, just like I was. And you'll take over the school, you and your girls will be _the _girls to be. All the boys will want you, all the girls will want to be you. You'll get to love your life here just as much as I did." She shook her head. "You don't even know how excited I am for you, Juliet. It sounds weird and all now, but you'll get it soon. I promise you will."

Just then, several large trucks pulled up by our house with all of our new furniture inside. My mom grinned at me. "We're having dinner at 7, then you can take the girls out to the hot tub and get to know them." She started walking toward the house and looked back at me. "Wear something semi-formal. Don't get too fancy." She smiled one last time before tossing her chestnut hair over her shoulder and stalking into the house.

Wow. The house. I hadn't even taken one glance at it before, but now that I saw it…It was amazing. It was three times the size of my old house, and a million times nicer. It was an enormous brick house, complete with a beautiful walkway, creamy white window-panes and a rich black door. I threw my new Louis Vuitton bag over my shoulder and sauntered inside.

There were tons of workers rushing about, yelling at each other and carrying various leather couches and shiny new tables. I found my dad talking nonchalantly to a young worker and poked his shoulder lightly. "Where's my room?" I asked, slowly eyeing the twenty-something guy. I threw him a flirty smile before turning my attention back to my dad.

He grinned. "You mean, where's your _rooms?" _

"Rooms?"

"Go up the front stairs and to the right. Every room on that side is yours."

I nearly dropped my bag. "What?" I asked, unable to grasp what he was saying.

My dad's smile only stretched wider. "Go see."

I quickly turned on my heels and speed-walked to the staircase at the front of the house. Once I was out of the cute worker's sight, I sprinted up the stairs, making light clacking noises in the process. At the top, I turned to my left and opened up the first door I saw. I gasped. It was an enormous room, at least twice the size of my old room. And it was already decorated just how I'd wanted it.

The walls were deep red, matching the comforter on my king sized bed. The floor was covered in a white carpet, along with a smaller red rug in front of my bed. My dresser, desk, and bookshelf were all black. A large red dog bed sat in the corner of the room. I wrinkled my nose in confusion. We didn't have a dog. I shrugged it off and took another look at the room. A huge 42 inch plasma screen TV hung on my wall. A shiny new black laptop sat on my bed, along with a new iPhone. I stared around the room, hardly able to believe what I was seeing. But then I noticed something. I had no closet.

I furrowed my eyebrows and stalked out and into the next room. I thought I might faint at what I saw. It was a full room sized closet, with space for more dresses, skirts, and _shoes _than I could imagine. I almost screamed when I noticed the large section for jewelry in the corner. There were already a few things in the room, a few dresses and shirts that I'd decided to keep, as well as some new things I assumed my mom or my stylist had picked out for me. I ran my fingers along the long rows of drawers and empty hangers, imagining all the clothes I could buy and put inside.

I walked out of that room and into the last one on that side. A grin appeared on my face as I walked into my new bathroom, which was complete with different blow-dryers and flat-irons, as well as all of my makeup sorted into a makeup box on the counter. Various perfumes sat on the counter as well, including my favorite vanilla perfume from Bath and Body works. It was the only cheap perfume-or anything else, for that matter-that I'd ever wear.

I grinned and turned around, seeing my mom standing by the door. "What do you think, Jules?" She asked, a tentative smile on her lips as I sprayed on perfume.

"It's amazing!" I replied, giving her a hug. "You're the best."

She raised her arms. "Well, I guess so." she boasted. "We made sure to have your rooms done before we came. The rest of the house is just getting decorated now." She looked to the side as someone called her name. "I've got to go. We have a few hours before the guests come, so you can go shopping if you want. There's a driver out front to take you to the mall nearby." She started walking out, but turned and winked at me. "But don't buy too much, save some shopping for later. There's nothing better to bond with a new group of friends than a shopping spree."

I grinned and grabbed my bag out of my room where I'd dropped it and sauntered down the stairs and out to the car. Sure enough, there was someone waiting outside it, ready to open up my door and take me where I wanted to go. "To the mall." I ordered, stepping into the new smelling car. I turned on my new iPhone and ignored all the text messages from my old friends from California and logged onto Facebook. I quickly typed in a new status.

"_To new beginnings" _

**Okay, so there's the first chapter. I know it was kind of boring and short since I had to do all that 'fun' introductory stuff. You'll find out more in the next chapter, which I hope to have up today as well. Reviews are much appreciated! **

**Hugs and Kisses! **

**~Rosie**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hiya fanfictioners. So here's the next chapter. It's really long, I'm so proud. There's another awkward scene in this that has all these introductions (which, if you haven't noticed by now, I am particularly horrible at writing), so know that I know it's bad. Well, I hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**Oh! Also, if you want to see any of the girls' outfits or anything, just PM me and I'll give you a link to the outfits. I'll also have all of Juliet's signature accessories (You'll see what I mean after you read the chapter), so you can see those too if you want. **

**Juliet's POV**

"They'll be here any minute!" I rolled my eyes at my mom's nervous squealing. I looked up at her and raised my eyebrows. She nodded quickly and muttered, "Sorry, I'm okay. I'll calm down."

My mom rarely acted nervous, especially around me. Apparently, she thought she had to act calm and collected around me at all times, or else her anxiousness would rub off on me. She thought wrong, I never acted nervous, even if I was screaming on the inside.

I didn't get why she was so nervous anyway. She'd told me all about her old friends, and they were obviously no match for her, so there was no way their kids would be any trouble for me. I turned my head to the right, where a silver rimmed mirror hung on the wall. I smiled at myself, proud of my work. I'd put on a thin layer of foundation, making my skin look creamy and smooth, along with new Dior mascara and my new favorite lipstick, Saint Laurent Rogue Volupte Pearle. It was a mouthful, but ever since I saw it at Barney's, I just had to have it at all times. I ran my fingers through my straightened, honey blonde hair, which was usually in soft waves. I thought a crisp but cute hairstyle would work best. I wanted to look cute, but these girls had to know that I meant business.

As the doorbell rang, I heard my mom gasp. She quickly straightened her shoulders and put on an 'I'm fabulous' smile. She click-clacked to the door in her high heels and opened the front door. I forced a small smile as a large group of people walked in. My dad anxiously tugged at his tie and shifted in his dress pants. I quickly scanned the people's faces. One very thin woman had obviously had plastic surgery or botox recently, because her smile never seemed to shift. I looked at the teenage girls with disgust, resisting the urge to wrinkle my nose.

They were awful. I couldn't imagine how I was going to work with these girls. How in the world was I supposed to turn these losers into girls worthy of being in my new Pretty Committee in only one month? One of them had a pretty face, but her dress looked like a rainbow had thrown up on it, and she paired it with pink and white polka dot flats…Hasn't she ever seen What Not to Wear? Another was overweight and was wearing a dress several sizes too small. I raised an eyebrow and nodded slightly at a girl with long, dark hair and a gorgeous black dress. It was probably cheap, but it was cute. I set my eyes on the last girl, who was wearing a dress that showed way too much leg for a semi-formal dinner and looked like a tutu. _Slut. _

"Oh my gosh!" I turned my head to a thin woman with dirty blonde hair and a childish face. "So you're Juliet. Gosh you look amazing!"

I smiled at her. "Thank you." I did feel especially good tonight in a new Alice & Olivia dress.

My mom finished hugging the adults and looked at me. "Okay, Juliet. This is my friend Claire and her husband Cam. Their daughter is Halley." I nodded and threw them a fake smile as my mom gestured to each person. Halley was the one in the rainbow dress. "And this is their son Emmett." My attention quickly shifted from the wall above the people's heads to the boy my mom was pointing at. He was tall and had light brown hair. He was definitely datable. "Here's Kristen and her husband Dempsey. You might have seen them while your father was watching soccer, they're big sports stars." They both flashed wide smiles. "And this is their daughter Spencer." There's the slutty looking girl. My mom then pointed to a rail thin woman, the one with botox, and the heavy girl. "Dylan-you might now her, she's a model-, her husband Josh, and their daughter Reilly." She smiled at one last woman, a Spanish beauty, and her daughter with the cool dress. "Last but not least, Alicia Rivera and her daughter Marisol."

I nodded and smiled again, racking my brains to remember all of the names. "Let's go have dinner." My mom said, clapping her hands together. I stalked away to the dining room, which now had a huge table, just big enough for all of us to sit. There were little name cards at each seat. My mom sat at the head of the table, with me at her side and my dad across from me. The girl with good style, Marisol, sat next to me.

As a maid started carrying in plates of food, I turned to her. "I love your dress Marisol." I murmured, smiling at her. I looked down at her feet, where she was wearing adorable Vera Wang golden flats, and added, "And your shoes are ah-mazing."

She blinked at me in surprise. "Thank you!" She gave me a tentative smile. "Your dress is so cute too. I saw it in Teen Vogue the other day and was dying to get it."

I grinned. "You have good fashion sense." I looked briefly at my mom, who was smiling at me. "We should totally go shopping together sometime. I have an empty closet that needs filling."

"Oh! Okay, sure. That sounds like fun." Marisol said, just as my mom started gently tapping her glass with a spoon, trying to catch everyone's attention.

My mom raised her glass, which was now filled with white wine, and started, "I'm so happy to have all of my friends and their families here tonight. I've missed you all so much. I'm so glad our children can meet each other now. To old and new friends!" I held back an eye roll as my mom's eyes settled on me.

"Cheers!" everyone in the room said, smiling.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

"Juliet, why don't you lend the girls some bathing suits and go out to the hot tub?" My mom said while our maid cleared up the dining room table.

I nodded, figuring my mom had put some bathing suits in my closet. "Sure." I gestured the girls towards the stairs and started walking up them while my mom chatted with the other adults. As we reached my closet, I turned the knob and flicked on the lights, instantly hearing gasps from the others.

"This…is your closet?" Reilly asked, her eyes wide.

I smirked. "Yeah, pretty cool huh?" I stalked inside and glanced around until I saw a couple dozen bathing suits hanging near the back. I grabbed a light gray bandeau bikini for myself and four different ones, which were hanging together away from the rest, and handed them to the girls. "I'll get changed in my room. You guys can get changed in here, my bathroom, my parents' room, or the downstairs bathroom. Meet me out back." I quickly noticed five towels near the bathing suits and gave one to each of them as well. I tossed them a light smile and walked out, feeling their eyes burning into my back.

I quickly undressed in my room and slipped on the bikini. I contemplated taking off my necklace, but decided against it. I never took my necklace off anyway. It was a Tiffany gardenflower necklace that my grandmother gave me when she died. Apparently it was worth nearly fifty thousand dollars. Not that it mattered, I'd never dream of selling it anyway, it was way too important to me. And as for my hair, it just had to look perfect. I would have liked to leave it down, but it was way too long and would get soaked on the bottom, so I pulled it up in a messy bun and slid in a new blue lace bow headband I'd found in my closet while searching through it. I reapplied another coat of my lipstick and flashed a toothy smile into the mirror, ready to take on the awful mess of the girls I had to turn beautiful, confident, _and perfect_.

I stepped lightly down the stairs, avoiding the annoying sound of my bright blue flip-flops while I walked. The adults were all crowded around the kitchen, and I could hear the women talking about their daughters-minus my mom, of course-and explaining how they just weren't like they expected them to be. I listened for a moment outside of the kitchen before walking in and noticing Emmett. I adjusted the soft towel wrapped around my arm and looked over at him, turning up the corners of my mouth the slightest bit.

"Your father set up the hot tub already, Juliet. It's right out back and all ready to go." My mom said to me, while still listening and nodding sympathetically to one of the mothers-Dylan, I think-talk about her daughter's weight.

"Kay." I replied, walking over to the back door, brushing lightly past Emmett on my way. I could feel him turn towards me as I opened the door. I forced myself outside into the cool air without sparing him another glance.

Sure enough, the hot tub was only a few feet away from the house, sitting on the grass. I walked up to it and ran my fingers along the top of the water, waiting for the other girls to come out before I got in. I ran over things to say in my head, trying to organize exactly how I was going to do this. Most of the girls would probably be easy enough to convince to join my new Pretty Committee, but the slutty girl, Spencer, might be a little harder to get.

I turned my head as Marisol walked out. I nodded to her and waved her over. So far, she was my favorite. She had a good sense of style, and she was gorgeous-but not as gorgeous as me, of course-and could probably make a good Beta with a little bit of work. "You look amazing." I complimented her, not only because it was true, because she did look amazing in a Milly key Largo bandeau bikini, but also to butter her up a bit. "You should def. keep that."

She grinned at me, obviously gaining confidence with each compliment I gave her. "Seriously? Thanks! It _does _look pretty good on me, doesn't it?"

My smile widened. _That _was the confidence I'd been waiting for. "Absolutely." I placed my hand in the hot tub. "Let's get in. I don't feel like waiting, I'm getting cold." I gently hopped in, followed my Marisol. A few seconds later, the rest of the girls came walking out, all wrapped up in their towels-except for Spencer, who had obviously pulled her bikini top down, hardly covering her boobs. I held back an eye roll. "Hey girls, hop in."

Halley looked over at me as she stepped into the hot tub, her baby pink bikini contrasting well against her pale skin. "Your necklace is beautiful." She murmured, her voice soft.

"You think so? I've had it for a long time." I ran my fingers along the jewels. "Honestly, I never take it off."

Spencer wrinkled her nose at me. "So you like to wear things that are seasons old. Huh."

I raised my eyebrows at her, ready to jump across the water and slap her. "My grandmother gave this to me before she died, you bitch." I didn't care if my mom wanted us to all get along, I would _not _let her get away with insulting me like that. "At least I don't wear dresses meant for 5 year olds." I turned to Marisol, who was sitting right next to me, and not-so-quietly whispered, "Can you say skank?" Marisol giggled and gave me a high-five while I stared Spencer down. The other two girls, Halley and Reilly, looked impressed and a little bit nervous, as if I would turn on them at any second. I crossed my legs under the water and smirked, enjoying Spencer's flustered expression.

"Well at least I'm not…" Spencer stuttered, trying to come up with a comeback. "At least I have style!" She yelled, her face turning red.

Marisol laughed, sounding similar to my own bitchy scoff. "Style? _You _have style? Hah! Style isn't wearing a dress that looks like a tutu and barely covers your butt. And_ god_, where did you get those shoes? Did you borrow them from one of your hooker friends or something?" I had to restrain myself from screaming with happiness-this girl was freaking amazing!

Spencer looked straight at Marisol and rolled her eyes. "You're one to talk."

I raised my eyebrows and looked Marisol. "Don't worry, Mari, she's just jealous because she can't get any guys, even _with _the microscopic amount of clothing she wears." She laughed and bumped my shoulder, murmuring in agreement. Reilly looked like she was watching a T.V. show and Halley was anxiously brushing her hair out of her face. I smiled warmly at them, trying to reassure them that they were safe.

"You bitch!" Spencer screeched, standing up and nearly losing her top. She leapt at me, about to jump on top of me. I was ready to shove her back and give her what she was asking for, but a flash of pink got in my way and did it for me.

I stared ahead, eyes wide, and realized that it was Halley. She was pushing Spencer out of the hot tub and holding onto her hair. Spencer glared up at her when she hit the ground, quickly standing up and attempting to brush off the mud on her knees. "You started this, you deserved that." Halley muttered sitting back down and crossing her arms, as if she was chastising herself for doing something like that.

I quickly reached over and grabbed Halley's arm. "You're the best." I said, smiling. I turned away from her and to Spencer, who was dripping wet and paling fast. I gestured for her to come over to me at the edge of the hot tub. She nervously walked over, her expression fearful. I almost felt bad for her…but not really. I urged her closer, until her face was right by mine. "If you ever talk to me like that again, I will personally _ruin _you. And that's a promise." Before she had a chance to react, I raised my hand and slapped her across the face, something I'd been wanting to do since she first started talking.

She jumped backwards, her eyes wide and mouth gaping open. A red handprint started appearing on her face as she started stumbling into the house, no more fight left in her. "Buh-bye!" I called after her. She turned around once, then ran inside.

"She's a bitch." Reilly murmured softly, staring at her hands underwater. "She got what was coming to her."

I sat down next to her and nudged her shoulder. "Ah-greed." I rolled my shoulders back to calm down and smiled at the girls. "So, who wants to have a sleepover? I could totally use a facial mask and a movie night in my P.J.s." The girls nodded excitedly. "Awesome."

We all got out of the hot tub and wrapped our towels around our bodies. I tucked mine in so it wouldn't fall and linked arms with Marisol and Reilly, who were on either side of me. I watched as Marisol linked arms with Halley and grinned, actually smiling because I wanted to this time. "I say we get mani-pedis in the morning, get our hair done, then hit the mall. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" The others yelled.

I smiled, one corner of my lip turning up. Maybe my mom was right. I could feel the power, and I was _loving _it.

**Good? Bad? Eh? Reviews are greatly appreciated, I want to hear any opinions, even if they're bad. **

**I have a 24 hour dance-a-thon tomorrow until 2 pm on Saturday, so the next chapter probably won't be up until Sunday :( I promise to update as soon as possible!**

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**~Rosie**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey again guys. Once again, thank you thank you thank you for all the reviews! You're all the best! **

**So, here's a question to all of you: Would you rather I skip the transformation phase (there are about 3 weeks until school starts for them) and have you be surprised at how they turn out, or would you rather me write it out? I'd like to hear all of your opinions on that before I write the next chapter. Another question: What should I name the signature coffee shop for the girls(like Starbucks or whatever in the Clique)? I had two ideas in mind: l'amour café(café love) or café rogue(café red(red is juliet's favorite color)). I'm going to use café rogue for now, but I'll change it if people like the other one better. So, please tell me which you like better or if you have an idea of your own! Thanks lots! **

**Also, just so you know, this won't always be in Juliet's point of view. I'll be sure to make it in the other girls' point of view as well, but it will usually be in Juliet's point of view. **

**Juliet's POV**

"So," I said, dipping my feet into the hot water beneath them as we waited to get our pedicures. "What's the scoop on guys with you? Are there any boyfriends in the picture?"

Reilly smiled and poked Halley's thin arm. "Halley has a boyfriend. He's cute too."

I placed my eyes on Halley and raised an eyebrow. She looked down at her hands. "His name's Mark." She muttered, looking up. "He doesn't live here anymore though, he lives in Florida."

I nodded. "you'll have to tell us more about that whole thing later." I gazed down at my nails, which were now gorgeously done in a French manicure. "How about the guys at BOCD?"

Marisol raised her hands in the air and replied, "Nick Hamilton, by _far _is the hottest guy I've ever seen." I turned toward her and made a motion with my hand, urging her to continue. She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. "He's weird about dating though. He's never had a girlfriend."

Reilly nodded sadly. "No one gets past the friend zone with him. Not even Allie and her minions."

I let out a sigh, fighting between wanting to talk about the guy and the clique of girls. "Gah!" I grumbled, trying to set my priorities straight. "Okay, elaborate on these girls. Who are they, what are they like, what do they look like, what do they _wear?_"

"Allie Dawson is the leader. She's gorgeous, but not as pretty as you Jules." I smiled at Halley, who was explaining. "Andie Baxter is sort of her second in command. She's an amazing dancer. She's got a great tan and hair a lot like yours." I raised an eyebrow, beginning to get amazingly pissed just at hearing about the girl. _I _was a dancer. And her hair looked like mine? I could smell the competition already. "Daisy and Lauren are her other two minions. They're average looking, but slutty." Halley picked a piece of lint off of her absolutely amazing Valentino Rosette-embellished jersey T-shirt that I'd lent her this morning. "And they wear, like, nothing but Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein."

I wrinkled my nose at my Louis bag and made a note to get rid of it and get a new one at the mall. "Okay, empty your closets of anything Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein immediately." They nodded obediently while the pedicurists started working at our toes. "These girls are nothing we can't handle, believe me."

Marisol's pretty dark green eyes widened as she grabbed my arm. "Oh. My. God!" She cried. I grinned, she was starting to get it. She lowered her voice slightly, as if in awe. "The Pretty Committee!"

I grinned excitedly. "Exactly!" I looked over at the other girls. "I'm sure you guys have heard the stories from your moms, right?"

They nodded, but Reilly looked nervous. "Wasn't everyone in the Pretty Committee, like, perfect?" She looked anxiously at her toes, which were now getting painted dark blue.

"We_ will_ be perfect." I replied easily.

Halley looked at me. "How? We're nothing like Allie and her group. We're not organized, we don't have perfect style like them and we aren't as put together-except for you, Juliet." She shrugged. "I don't know if the rest of us could pull it off."

I grabbed her hand. "But you can! Seriously, we can be just like that group, but a million times better!" I quickly got up and slid my feet into my black flip-flops waiting on the floor as the pedicurist finished my toes. "Let's go to Café Rogue. We've got a lot to discuss." I waited for the others to get up and started walking toward the door. I tossed several fifty dollar bills at the lady at the counter and continued, "Then we'll go to the mall and shop till we drop."

We walked outside and into the car where my driver was waiting for us. We quickly climbed in, taking our already decided places. Marisol sat closest to me, with Halley and Reilly next to each other on the other side. Café Rogue was only a few minutes away, so we quickly got out and walked inside.

"Wow!" Halley murmured in her soft voice. "I didn't even know this place was here. It's so cool!"

I smiled. The night before when all of the girls had fallen asleep, I did some searching online for the hottest places nearby. My mom had told me that we would need a signature hang-out, and this was the best of all the places I'd seen. It was a gorgeous, quaint little coffee shop that had just opened in Westchester. Not many people knew about it yet, and it was mostly empty. I smiled at the soft, relaxing music playing in the background. Inside, it was draped in tons of dark red and gray curtains and was filled with cute booths and tables, as well as cozy corners covered in red and gray pillows for people to sit and read. "It's just adorable isn't it? I say it's our new place to hang out."

Marisol grinned. "Absolutely."

I pulled my new friends over to a table near the corner of the room. "Sit down. I'll go get us some drinks." I looked over at the counter and red some of the drinks they had. "How do smoothies sound?" The girls nodded and murmured in agreement. I stalked over to the counter, not wavering in my Miu Miu satin heels. There was a boy behind the counter, his back turned from me. I tapped my nails lightly on the counter, making him turn around.

I could hear the girls gasp slightly at the table several feet away. I raised an eyebrow and allowed myself to give a small smile. I had a feeling I knew who this guy was. He was absolutely _gorgeous. _He had chestnut brown hair and the most amazing dark blue eyes. "Sorry about that." He said, running his hand through his hair. Gosh, even his voice was amazing. "How can I help you?"

I lightly brushed my hair out of my eyes, suddenly questioning whether leaving my hair natural and wavy was a good idea. "Can I get four black raspberry smoothies?"

He smiled at me, slightly showing his toothpaste commercial white teeth. "Sure, coming right up." I turned my head slightly to the side and watched him make the smoothies. I looked back at the girls, who were talking excitedly to each other. I mouthed, "Nick Hamilton?" to them, and they all nodded quickly, grinning. A slow smile edged its way onto my face as I leaned forward a little, waiting for him to finish. He turned back toward me, placing the four drinks on a tray and pushing it forward. He looked a bit taken back when he noticed how close I was, but played it off well. "That'll be 12.50." He said, one corner of his mouth turning up.

I handed him fifteen dollars. "Keep the change." I said, not because I thought he needed it, he probably had as much money as I did, but because I hated having change in my purse. I usually used my credit card for everything, but I didn't want to look like a snob.

"Thanks." He grinned, putting the money in the cash register. I watched as he took out the extra change and stuffed it into the charity donation box on the counter. I made a note of this in my head. He was a nice guy. I pulled the tray closer to me and he stopped me, placing his hand on my arm. "Hey, are you going to BOCD?"

"Yeah. I just moved here from California." I replied.

"Awesome. I guess I'll see you there in a few weeks then?" He asked hopefully.

I flashed him a flirty smile. "Definitely." I took the tray and walked back to our table, trying not to look back. That was always my problem. I wanted to look at them again and see if they were looking at me, but I wanted to play hard to get.

Reilly stared wide eyed at me. "You are so lucky! He was practically drooling over you."

I smiled hesitantly, trying to act unsure. "You think so?"

"Obviously! I mean did you see his face when he saw you?" Halley gushed softly. "You could be the first girl to actually get him."

"We'll see." I responded, ending that conversation. "Now, we need to get down to business." I pulled a spiral notebook out of my bag along with a sparkly red pen. "We need to get organized. We need to understand the things we need to change about ourselves, our good points, style, looks, everything. To start, let's talk about flaws. We all have them, we just have to try not to show them to the public." I saw everyone's nervous faces and gave them a soft smile. "It's okay, we're all friends here right? We'll try to help each other change for the better. Just tell me anything that you don't like about yourself, or anything that other people have noticed about you that's bad." Their faces didn't waver. I sighed. "Okay, I'll start. My biggest problem is I get angry _very _easily." I hated telling people about this, no matter how loyal I could imagine they'd be. "You saw that last night with Spencer. I seriously need to work on keeping my cool. Another one is that I always bite my lips. Thank god for extreme lip repair lipstick." I jotted this down under my name on a fresh piece of paper. "I say we take up yoga or meditating or something, that way I can learn to stay calm."

Reilly pushed her dark hair out of her face. "Maybe for the lip biting thing, every day you go without biting them you could buy a new lipgloss or something. And every day you do bite them, you take a lipgloss away."

I gasped lightly. "That is such a great idea!" I quickly wrote that down, actually liking the idea. "Okay, so there are my two problems. Marisol, how about you?"

Marisol pursed her lips unhappily. "Well, everyone in school calls me a slut." I stared wide eyed at her and urged her to continue. She shook her head sadly. "I fell for this one guy and sort of let him take advantage of me. It was only once, but he dumped me right after we did it and started telling all his friends." She was starting to get tears in her eyes. "Then they told everyone else and suddenly I was the school whore. Guys are always coming up behind me and slapping my butt or lifting up my shirt."

I placed my hand on hers and said sympathetically, "My god, that is horrible! We'll get him back, I swear. What's his name?"

"Ryan Abeley." She responded bleakly, wiping her eyes.

I wrote down the name. "We'll think up ideas on how to get him back. We'll spread the word that he was lying." I said. "How about we coordinate a new style for you? Let's cut out the majority of dresses and skirts in your closet and replace them with some cute jeans and pants or shorts. The skirts you do wear will be longer, but still hot." She smiled thankfully at me. "Okay, Reilly?"

Reilly let out a deep breath. "Well…everyone rags on me about my weight."

I stared incredulously at her, faking it. "No way! I don't see why." She smiled hopefully. "But, you know what we'll do? We'll all start going to the gym to exercise every day. We'll cut out the sweets and stuff from our diets. It'll be good for all of us." Everyone nodded agreeably. "We'll also go buy you some cute clothes to work with your figure. Not all of us are sticks!" I could already see all of their confidence growing. "Halley, you're last."

"Well," Halley started, "I kind of have no fashion sense. And I have no idea how to put on makeup."

"Oh!" I replied, happy at how easy she would be to fix up. "That's easy. You'll learn so much while we're shopping. As for the makeup, my mom told me about this ah-mazing stylist that can help me get ready for big events. I'll have him come over one day and help us all with makeup tips. Oh, that reminds me, can you guys come over before school the first day? The stylist will be there, and he can make us all look perfect for the first day _and _he can give us awesome outfits to wear. Plus, we'll have to go over tactics before we go."

"Sounds good." Marisol said, taking a sip of her smoothie. The others agreed.

I finished writing and shut my notebook, putting it back in my purse. "Alright girlies, let's go shopping. We've got tons to do."

**Did you guys like this chapter? Please review with any comments!**

**Also, I have another fanfiction in the Twilight section that not many people have reviewed or read at all since there are so many stories in that section! If you're a Twilight fan, please check it out and give me your thoughts on it! Thanks tons!**

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**~Rosie**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while. I found out about a week ago that I'm not allowed to dance anymore (because of hip issues), so I've been really upset lately and not in the mood to write. But now I'm feeling a bit better and decided it was about time to get this next chapter up. I hope you guys like it. **

"Okay, so how are we going to do this?"

I lifted my head from staring at my amazing new Kate Spade sandals. Usually I wasn't a Kate Spade kind of girl, but these shoes were simply to die for, so I made an exception. I clucked my tongue and pulled out my notebook and a pen, placing it on Marisol's bright green desk. "Okay, so everyone in school thinks you're a bit…promiscuous, right?" I said, trying to make it sound better. She nodded glumly. I tapped my pen on the desk and replied, "Then our goal is to make you seem as pure as possible. Now, you won't always have to act like a perfect Christian girl. It's just until everyone forgets all about that nasty little rumor, then you can get your flirt on." I smiled at her and started writing something down. "First, let your eyebrows grow out a little. They're a bit too thin and arched. We want a more natural look for you." If everyone thought she was a hoe, the last thing she needed was to have stripper eyebrows. "Second, go through your closet and get rid of all short skirts, shorts, and dresses. You could save them, but I figure by the time you can to wear them again, they'll be out of style, so I recommend donating them or giving them to the girls." I had to hold in a proud smile at the way I could say, 'the girls' now.

Marisol pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. "I'm not the biggest fan of short, flashy stuff, but there's this one dress…"

I gave her a sympathetic glance and sighed. "Show me." She anxiously ran to her walk-in closet and came back out a moment later with a gorgeous white cotton dress. It was very simple, but elegant at the same time. But it was a little short. I made a face, fighting with myself over whether or not I should let her wear it. I would borrow it, but my skin was much to fair to wear a white dress like that. I would get washed out. However, I could already tell that Marisol's rich skin color would contrast amazingly with the dress. I turned my head to one side. "you can keep it. Just don't wear it the first day of school. Not that you could, anyway. The stylist will pick out something."

She squealed in delight and put the dress away. "Thanks Jules. So, what else?"

A mischievous grin appeared on my face. "One word. Boyfriend." She raised her eyebrows at me, surprised. "I know that, because you need to seem pure and all that, having a boyfriend sounds bad, but not if the guy is just as pure." She was beginning to look excited, eyes wide. "I did a little research, and I found the perfect guy." I said. I'd come prepared. The night before, I had went facebook searching to find Marisol a sweet, pure guy. I'd enlisted a bit of help from Reilly and Halley as well, of course. They sent me text messages with names of the hottest guys at BOCD. I had friend requested said boys, and they'd all quickly accepted-much to my own pleasure. After a bit of profile creeping-come on, everyone does it-I'd found the best match possible. "His name is Seth. Seth Briar."

Marisol choked on a sip of water she'd taken. "Really? Isn't he a dork though?"

I rolled my eyes. "I said I'd get you a nice guy, not a _dork. _According to his past profile pictures and such, he _was _a dork, but believe me, he's not anymore"

I watched as she quickly grabbed her green laptop off of her bed and flipped it open, quickly logging onto facebook. She typed in his name and gasped. "Oh. My. God!" She cried, suddenly becoming a bit giggly. "Do you think he'd like me though? How will I even start talking to him by the time school starts?"

I smiled lightly at her nervous babbling. "Don't sweat it girlie, Obviously he'll like you, I mean just look at you! Plus, I scored us some invites to his friends' party this Saturday that I happen to know he's going to so…" She let out a scream of excitement and ran over to hug me. She stopped short and held her arms out hesitantly, seeming a bit unsure of whether that was okay or not. I held out my arms and turned my head to the side. "What are you waiting for? You can't just offer me a hug and then stop!"

She laughed and hugged me. "You're the best, Juliet. Honestly." I smiled and wrote a few more things down in my notebook before ripping it out. She looked down at her feet as she sat down on her bed, taking the paper from me. "You know, Juliet, I never really had a best friend before. I was wondering if I would ever have one. You know, someone to have sleepovers with and tell all my secrets to. Someone who would always be there for me and always have my back. I wanted someone to do makeovers with and go to the mall to shop and scope out cute boys."

I grinned, flashing my white teeth. "And now you have one!" Her face lit up. I felt proud of myself. I already had the girls wrapped around my finger. "If I weren't here, who would be able to turn around this awful rumor and give you a new start?"

She smiled. "No one. I'd be stuck being known as 'that slut' for all of my years."

"Well I promise you, if I hear anyone calling you a slut, or any other insult for that matter, they'll wish they'd never been born." I could feel Marisol's joy just by looking at her. I felt no guilt, because I really did mean it. Especially when it came to Marisol, I felt very protective, probably because I liked her the most. In order to be a good Alpha, I had to be protective and stick up for my girls. And I would, without a doubt, be a good Alpha.

I jumped when I heard my cell phone ring. I picked it up and read the message, a sly smile spreading onto my face. "Is that who I think it is?" Marisol chimed happily.

"Yes." I replied, trying to sound excited. It was Emmett, Halley's brother. I had to admit, he was cute, and pretty funny, but I just wasn't that attracted to him. Of course I flirted with him, I do that with any cute guy I see, but I wouldn't want to like, date him or anything. He wasn't _that _cute. "He's been texting me all day. A little too clingy, to be honest."

"Well I bet he just doesn't sound quite so good now that you know Nick Hamilton is into you."

I shrugged. "I don't know that."

She rolled her eyes. "You've got to know that. You guys had instant chemistry. You'll be the perfect couple once you start talking when school starts."

I allowed myself to smile slightly. "Hopefully before school starts. I'm praying he shows up at that kid's party."

"Whose party is it anyway?" Marisol asked, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Some guy named Adrian Ryan or something, I think." I murmured absentmindedly, my attention now concentrated on the gorgeous image of Nick Hamilton in my head. I'd been pretty good, not thinking about him, but now Marisol had brought it up again and I couldn't get him off of my mind.

I snapped out of it when I heard Marisol make an odd, disgusted sound and made a face. "Ugh. Adrian Ryan is such a player."

"The bad kind, I'm assuming?" I asked curiously.

She raised an eyebrow. "There's a good and a bad kind of player?"

I nodded. "Duh. The good kind would be a person like me. I like to change things up often, because I get bored. So, I skip around guys a lot. However," I added while Marisol's expression became worried, "I make it clear at the start of a relationship that I don't intend for it to last. Usually, the guy is fine with that. If they aren't, we decide to stay friends instead. No problem." She nodded hesitantly, some of the worry was fading, but not all of it. "The bad kind of player is a total heartbreaker, the kind that has no intention of staying with you more than a few weeks, but doesn't warn you. The kind that makes out that you're the only one he loves and he'll never leave you. Ha. Now that kind of player I hate." My eyes rested on Marisol once more. She still looked a little nervous. "Mari, just because my dating habits are like that doesn't mean that my friendship habits are the same. I don't make friends easily, but the ones that I do make, I keep for a long, long time. People just have to earn my loyalty, is all. You've got nothing to worry about, I love you like a sister already."

Marisol's face was glowing now, a wide grin stretching across it. She reached over and hugged me tight. "I'm so glad you moved here."

I smiled easily when she pulled away. "Come on, we've got work to do." When she looked oddly at me I sighed. "We've got to clean out your closet. _Then _we have to go shopping for more clothes to fill it. Plus, I went all of yesterday without biting my lips. I need to buy some lipgloss." Marisol laughed and linked arms with me, pulling me toward her closet.

**I hope that was at least decent. I haven't been writing for a while so I might be a little rusty (yes, I do get 'rusty' that fast(: ) Reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks! **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**~Rosie**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey! Thank you so much everyone for your comments, they make me so happy! **

**I'm always looking for new outfit ideas for characters in my stories. So, if you have any ideas (for cute outfits or for outfits for LBRs), please do send me a PM! Also, if you'd like to see any outfits you read about in the story, I have them on polyvore, so if you want to see them, just PM me and I'll give you a link to them or something. **

"I hate it. My mom hates it. My dad hates it. Everyone in the school hates it…It's ruining my life."

I nodded sympathetically as Reilly murmured about her being overweight. "Listen, it's not about what they think. It's about what you think, and about being healthy." I said, my hand on hers. "But if any opinion has to count in your head, make it be mine. You are _beautiful." _

Reilly's eyes were glowing, a single tear running down her cheek. "You really think so?"

"I don't think so. I know so." I replied, staring her straight in the eye.

She smiled softly, but I knew how happy I'd just made her. She pushed her hair out of her face and looked back at me, suddenly very serious. "Do you think there's any way I could lose 20 pounds before school starts?"

I thought for a moment. I'd lost more than 20 pounds in a month before. "Yes, definitely. And I can teach you how to do it in a healthy way." I pushed away nagging thoughts in my mind, old memories trying to remind me of the past. "We've got one month. You have to lose 5 pounds a week, and that's not so bad. Hold on, let me find the meal schedule my nutritionist gave me before."

Reilly looked at me as I scrolled through messages on my iPhone. "You have a nutritionist?" She asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

I immediately stopped scrolling and my eyes flickered up to meet hers. I sucked in a deep breath, fighting with myself about whether or not to spill, and just how much to spill. Well, secrets bring people closer, right? "Yeah. She's been helping me for a while now." I dug my fingers into the bare skin beneath my light wash jean shorts. I had to just say it, as little as I wanted to. "Believe me when I say I understand what you're going through, because I do. Now I'm going to tell you something, but you have to promise to keep it a secret. No one else can know, not even the other girls."

Reilly nodded quickly, her red hair falling into her face. "Of course, I won't tell anyone."

I sighed and forced myself to not start biting my lips. I swiftly reapplied some of my new vanilla flavored lipgloss. "Two years ago, I was just like you, only ten times worse." Her eyes widened unbelievingly. "I'd been…heavy since I was, like, eight years old." I had a thing against using the word _fat. _I could be a bitch, but never once in my life had I called a girl fat. I knew how much that hurt. Been there, done that. "My mom didn't hold it against me, thank god, she loved me just as much as now that I'm thinner. But I wanted to be thin, like the models on TV and the movie stars. Once I wanted it enough, I did it without much trouble." Reilly still looked amazed, but she raised an eyebrow to urge me on. "I got my nutritionist, and within a few months I'd dropped almost 50 pounds. I can help you do it too."

Her eyes were glowing. "That would make me the happiest person in the world."

"Then we'll make it happen." I said, finishing that conversation. "Now, we have to discuss a few other elements of your…transformation." I p[ulled my notebook out and clicked my pen. "Hair. You've got the most amazing red hair, now you've got to work it. We should go to the hair salon and get you a keratin treatment." I murmured, eyeing her frizzy, grossly curled hair. "Second, clothes. We need a shopping trip to find you clothes with the right shape for you. Even after you lose the weight, you're still gonna have curves, I can tell." I could tell a body type from a mile away. She was pear shaped. She'd always have wider hips. "You'd have to starve yourself to get rid of those." We both winced. "Not that you'd want to. Who likes a girl with no figure?"

I grabbed Reilly's arm and pulled her toward my closet. "What are we doing?" She asked.

"Finding hot outfits for the gym, duh!"

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Juliet, I can't do it anymore!" Reilly called from the elliptical across from me."

"Yes, you can." I hissed through my teeth. My feet pounded away at the treadmill beneath me. I slid my hair elastic off my wrist and wrapped it around my hair. I looked down at the machine and let out a sigh of relief. My hour was up. I'd run 10 miles, and I was _tired. _I looked over at Reilly, who was slowing from her already mediocre pace on the elliptical. Her face was as red as a tomato and sweat covered her forehead. I looked away for a moment before looking back. "See, you did it. One hour of the elliptical will have burned tons of calories." I took a drink from my water bottle and pushed my bangs out of my face. "Now we'll go back to my house and have a nice, healthy meal. My nutritionist is coming over to discuss workout schedules and meals with us. Then we can shower and go find you some new outfits."

As we walked out of the gym, I winced at the pain in my legs. They were aching like crazy, but they still managed to feel like jelly as I walked. I pulled out my iPhone and logged onto Facebook. I quickly typed in a new status, once again ignoring the texts and calls from my old friends. I'd call them back later.

"_Go big or go home." _

**How was it? I'm sorry it was kind of short and uneventful. Just wait another chapter or so and it'll get exciting again(: Review please! **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**~Rosie**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hola people. Here's the next chapter. Sorry it sorta stinks. It'll get better next chapter (and it will be really long too!). Bear with me here. I hope you enjoy it anyway. (reviewreviewreview!)**

"Oh. My. God." I hissed, staring at the monstrosity of a closet in front of me. "Oh, Halley, your fashion sense is just awful!" The expression on her face made me fix what I'd said. "Well, this is what I'm here for, right? You're absolutely gorgeous; we just have to accentuate that with some awesome clothes." I ran my hands along the disgusting polyester blends and plucked out a few shirts that looked alike and were actually decent. They were pretty average tee-shirts with cute words and quotes on them. I smiled at a cute long sleeved tee with a large red heart at the center. I remembered seeing it on Taylor Swift on TV at some point. I held up the tee-shirts to her. "See these? This is your new signature style."

Halley cocked her head to one side. "Tees?"

I nodded, hanging the shirts back up in her decently sized closet. "They fit you really well, they're just perfect for your body type." I laughed and forced out the words I didn't want to say. The words I never say. "God, I really envy your body." And to make it worse, I was obsessed with her hair too. She had that kind of natural black hair that was almost a blue-purple color. I had to admit, she was gorgeous.

Halley's eyes were wide with shock. "My body? Why on earth would you want my body? Especially when you have yours. I mean, Juliet, you're curvy and filled out. I'm just a tall, gangly stick."

I shook my head, taking out all the ugly clothes in her closet. "You're long and lean, the ideal body type for a ballet dancer. I'm too curvy and wide to ever become a professional ballet dancer. No matter what I do, I can't change my body type. I've tried." I replied, my voice rough. I usually embraced my hourglass figure, but not when it came to dancing.

She laughed. "Wide? Hardly! And I bet you can be professional and still have your curves."

"Nope." I said without emotion. "All the great ballet companies are looking for your body type specifically. Plus, my feet suck." I threw a particularly ugly skirt straight into the trash and ignored Halley's slightly fearful looking expression. I decided to stray from the subject-dance was a bit touchy with me at times. "I'm having that makeup guy come over my house before the party tomorrow." I turned my lips up in a sly smile, my anger over the dance thing completely gone. "And to add to that…I may have found absolutely _per_fect outfits for each and every one of us for the party."

Halley's eyes lit up excitedly. "No way! Can I see?" She jumped up from her bed and waited for my response.

"Nope, not until tomorrow!" I said, giggling at her pained expression.

She pushed out her bottom lip. "How will I know what shoes and jewelry and stuff to bring?"

I laughed. "You really think I got you all hot outfits and left out the accessories? I already have them too. The only thing you have to do is bring yourself-oh, and wear a light brown bra with the back safety pinned together in an 'X'."

"Why?"

I cringed away from a mustard yellow blouse with grandma-ruffles. "Because your shirt is light brown." She wrinkled her nose, obviously not too excited at the sound of a brown outfit. "Don't worry, it's absolutely amazing. I was even considering wearing your outfit myself. We'll brighten it up with colorful accessories and makeup." She looked a little nervous. "Hey, would I plan out an ugly outfit for you?"

She smiled lightly. "Not even possible."

"Duh!" I tossed out the last of the horrendous clothes, leaving only about an eighth of the closet full. "Alright, lets head to Café Rouge and get us some smoothies-low-fat strawberry banana ones this time, I think-and then we'll head to the mall to fill up the rest of your closet." I smiled at her and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her room.

I sighed as my phone buzzed, I had an incoming call. "You go on, Hal. It's one of my California friends, I'll only be a minute." As Halley walked off down the stairs, I answered my phone. "Hello?"

"Jules! God, it's so good to hear your voice. I haven't heard from you in forever girl! How's Westchester?"

I wrinkled my nose at my old friend's needy voice. "Hi Rachel. Westchester's fine."

"Oh, awesome! Cali is great as always, I'm just soaking up the sun and getting my tan on. Don't you miss the heat?"

"It's hot here too." I answered bluntly, willing her to get to the point.

I heard her drop something on the other end of the phone. "Oh, really? Well that's good I guess. It's gonna get super cold in the winter anyway." She paused. "Have you met any new friends? Any hotties?"

"I met a new group of girls. They're just amazing, you wouldn't believe how cool they are." I said, exaggerating a bit. I heard a small, nervous sound escape the back of her throat. "And there are tons of hot guys here. Life's good."

"Oh!" She said, her voice raising an octave. "That's great! I'm glad you're enjoying yourself." Halley called my name from downstairs. "Who's that?"

I told Halley I'd be right there and put my ear back to the phone. "Oh, just my friend Halley. God, she has the most gorgeous black hair, the kind you always wanted." I paused for a moment. "Well, I'm heading out to the mall to shop with her, so I got to go. Talk to you later, Rachel." I said, quickly pressing 'end' on my phone.

I opened up facebook and updated my status, trying purposefully to catch the attention Rachel, and anyone else from California that ever doubted me, as well as anyone from Westchester who underestimated me.

_heading to the mall with hal, then sleepover tonight with the girls. we're ready to party tomorrow(; _

**Was it horrible? I hope not! Please review!**

**Hugs and Kisses**

**~Rosie**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's the next chapter! It's really long, which made me happy. I really hope you guys like it. Reviews-either good or bad-are always greatly appreciated. Enjoy!**

"Get up girlies! Up!" I gave each of the girls a light nudge, jumping up to turn up the radio, now blasting a loud pop song. Everyone groaned and rolled over, pulling the plus cashmere blankets I'd lent them over their heads. "We've slept till noon girls! We have to get up!" I dragged a sleepy-eyed Marisol onto her feet and shook her around, trying to get her more awake. "We've got so much to do. The party's tonight, remember?"

That got them up. They were wide eyed and standing within seconds. "What's first?" Reilly asked, already looking thinner from our week of working out eating on a strict diet.

I pulled out my notebook and flipped to the page where I'd written out our schedule for today. "First…we're going to the spa to get full body polishes, facials, mani-pedis, and hot stone massages." I smiled, hot stone massages were my favorite. They always loosened up my muscles and made me feel more relaxed for the rest of the day. "That should take a couple hours. Then my stylist will come to do our hair and makeup-he'll have to rush to finish in time. I already have your outfits picked out and ready." Get showered quickly, there are three other bathrooms somewhere around here, and get changed into something presentable, then we'll go. Don't get too fancy, it's not necessary." I grabbed my clothes out of my closet-a simple pair of maroon colored shorts and a gray tank top along with gray flip-flops. I walked into my bathroom to shower, change and brush my teeth quickly and was out within 10 minutes. I put my hair up into a messy bun while it dried-I didn't have time to blow-dry it. I decided to leave on my glasses-I usually wore contacts-because they were pretty cute anyway. Plus, I wanted to make it seem like I was comfortable being a little messy around the girls. They already thought I was perfect, and seeing my flaws would probably make them think I was even better. Only the outside world had to think I was _always _perfect.

"We're ready!" I heard Reilly say from behind me. I turned around and smiled. The girls looked decent. Marisol looked okay in light colored yoga pants and a Philadelphia Phillies T-shirt. Reilly looked so-so in a pair of jean capris and a cute tank top. Halley looked better than the other two in a pair of gray soffe shorts and one of her new tees we'd bought yesterday. Her hair somehow managed to look silky and straight already, and only a tiny bit damp even though she'd just taken a shower. "Okay, let's go." I hopped down the stairs and started out the front door. "We'll grab smoothies on the way."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"I'm glowing!" I heard Marisol chime as we walked back into my house.

I laughed at her excited expression as she stared at her arms. "Oh darling, you're always glowing!" We all laughed as we walked into my family room, where the stylist was already waiting, impatiently tapping his foot on the floor.

"Girls, there you are!" I suppressed a laugh. He had a strong British accent, so it sounded more like 'Guhls, theh you ahh.' He ran over to me and pushed me toward one of the chairs he had set up. "My name is Brandon. You first, Juliet?"

"No, no, no." I replied. "I'm going last."

Brandon nodded quickly and dragged Marisol into the chair instead. "What is your name?" She responded in her happy, chirping voice. "Ah, I see. A Latina chica you are." He got to work on her makeup first, needing only a light layer of foundation and very natural, earthy tones. He didn't have to do much makeup-wise, but she had a lot of hair. He gave her tight corkscrew curls and pulled her long bangs away from her face. With a smile, he nudged her away and pulled Reilly over. "Oh, nice hair." He murmured, commenting on her fiery red hair. "I can work with this." He immediately started on her eyes and soon after was able to do her hair, which he looked excited about. He pulled her hair up into an elegant bun with a few pieces falling in loose curls.

I flipped through about a hundred texts from my California friends while I waited for my turn. Marisol and Reilly looked gorgeous, but I didn't pay too much attention to them. They were busy gushing over some guy in a magazine anyway. I paused on one text from my ex-boyfriend. I'd broken up with him right before I left for Westchester. I don't do long distance relationships.

Just then, I got a call from that very same guy. I took a deep breath, debating whether I should pick up or not. I cleared my throat and clicked 'answer'. "Hi, Andrew."

"Hey Jules." he said, his voice just as calm and cool as always. I used to fawn over that voice. Those days were over though.

I took a moment to reply, hoping he would think I was busy. "How's Cali?" I asked, ignoring the curious gazes of my friends.

He knew how to play that game. I waited several moments before he replied. "Oh, it's good. And Westchester? Been hooking up with guys already?"

I noted the twinge of jealousy in his voice. "Westchester's great. And no, I'm afraid I'm not a ho." Brandon waved me over as he finished Halley's hair and makeup. "Look, I gotta go. I've got this party tonight and I'm going to be late if I don't get to my hair and stuff now."

"Oh, okay. Um, call me later?"

I smirked. "Maybe." With that, I hung up. I walked over to Brandon and let him start working on my makeup. The girls sat on the couch behind me, taking the quizzes in a Cosmo Teen magazine.

"Who was that, Juliet?" Halley piped up in her soft voice.

"It was just some guy from my old school." I replied simply, closing my eyes to let Brandon apply some red and silver makeup to my eyelids. I'd given him strict orders to make my makeup red and silver to match my dress. Plus, red was _my _color. My friends had quickly learned that and were informed that I wouldn't like them wearing it. It was simply a good color on me, just like white was for Marisol, pink for Halley, and green for Reilly. I explained to them that they shouldn't wear those colors all the time though, that was babyish.

"What's his name?" Reilly asked excitedly.

I opened my eyes once Brandon was finished with the eye-shadow. He began applying a rich red lipstick to my lips. I waited a few moments for him to finish and move on to my hair. "Andrew." I said as my stylist added a small French braid on the side of my head. He didn't have to style it besides that, we'd both agreed that my hair was better as is, natural and lying in soft waves. "He's an ex of mine." I added, knowing they were going to ask about our relationship.

"Why exactly is he an ex?" Marisol questioned. I caught a glimpse of her curious face in the mirror in front of me.

I sighed, trying not to get annoyed at all their questions. "I was leaving for here, and he lives all the way back in California. I hardly do real relationships at all, let alone long distance ones." I felt Brandon sprinkle a little bit of silver sparkles in my hair after he sprayed it with hairspray. He made a few finishing touches and was finished. I got up and immediately ran up the stairs, not wanting the girls to see me fully until I was in my new dress. I flicked on the light in my closet and pulled out my dress and my shoes before heading into my room.

The girls ran up the stairs behind me, calling my name. "Juliet! What are you doing?"

"Getting changed." I replied. "Your outfits are in my closet. I wrote out your names on little pieces of paper on your outfits. Go get changed and then meet me downstairs by the door. I heard their murmurs of surprise, and then their screams of excitement as they saw their outfits. I laughed to myself as I slipped out of my clothes and stood there in my bra and underwear, fighting with my strapless bra, getting frustrated. That was one thing I'd never get used to, they were just so uncomfortable. After fixing it, I slid my dress on and stepped into my Christian Louboutin Marechale satin heels. I walked over to my full-length mirror and smiled slightly. I had to admit, I looked pretty amazing. I wasn't usually that confident, on the inside at least, and I usually put myself down in my head, but today…I actually felt good. My dress was one shouldered, bright, rich red, and had ruffles going down the top-cute ruffles, not the ugly kind. I was, as always, wearing my grandma's necklace along with a single silver Tiffany bracelet with a small bow-shaped charm. My face was shimmering from some kind of makeup Brandon had put on me. I reminded myself to ask him if I could have some more for the rest of my body before I left. With one last look in the mirror and a flick of my hair, I started out the room and down the stairs.

I heard a collective gasp as I stepped lightly down the stairs. My head came up and I realized that my friends and parents were waiting at the door. I put on soft smile and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

"Juliet, you look beautiful." My mom said, grinning. She was proud, and I could tell. Nothing made her happier than me looking good and perfect. Sometimes I worry that she's too wrapped up in my life. Maybe she's wistful of her younger years.

"Thanks mom." I replied, taking a swift glance at the clock on the wall. It was 7 o'clock now. Good, I wanted to be fashionably late.

She grinned. "Oh, you're welcome. Come with your friends now, let's take a picture."

I sighed and walked over to them, standing in between Marisol and Halley. I didn't bother looking at their outfits, I knew they were perfect. I would take a quick look at them before we went into the party to make sure they didn't need any quick touch-ups or anything. I threw my arms over their shoulders and flashed a toothy smile at the camera as my mom told us to say cheese. My mom asked for a few more, so I stuck my tongue out at the camera for one, and then struck a pose for another. My dad chuckled as I looked over at my friends' faces. I burst into laughter at their silly faces, but I wasn't sure exactly why. My mom clicked the camera one more time before dropping her hand.

"Okay girls, you better go so you won't be too late." My mom said, smiling at us and opening up the front door.

I grabbed my silver bow wristlet off the table in the hallway and walked out as my dad said, "Have a good time, girls. Don't get into any trouble." I laughed. My parents used to get into so much trouble when they were younger they had no room to talk.

"Got it. Bye mom, bye dad." I said, taking the lead walking out the door and over to the car. I stepped in, making sure to keep my legs crossed when I sat. I quickly turned on the radio, which had a CD I'd made of all of Taylor Swift's songs inside. It turned on to 'Jump then Fall', one of my favorites. I smiled and leaned back in the seat, already starting to feel more relaxed. I'd never moved before, and it was already stressful. I mean, I'd switched to a different school in the same town before, but not all the way across the country. This was different. The people were different. I was more nervous than I think I'd ever been. I'd never really met any kids from Westchester besides the girls and Emmett. Oh, and Nick too. Oh god, would Nick be there? I suddenly felt so much less confident.

The girls must have sensed my anxiousness, because they were quiet and analyzing my expression. "Sorry, just a bit tired." I said a little too quickly. I closed my eyes and let the Taylor Swift vibes soak in. She was my idol, always so confident and amazing. If only I could be her.

We were there in a few minutes, a large stone house looming ahead of us. I could see lights in the backyard and the house and could hear music blasting. I hopped out of the car, a little shaky in my heels, an uncommon occurrence. I turned to my friends as the car drove away, finally taking a good look at them. Marisol was wearing a white dress with a faint pattern going through it. It was just like her favorite dress, just a little longer and a little fancier. I was right, it did contrast perfectly against her darker skin. Her makeup was very faint and natural, but her fancy hair made up for it. I'd given her a pair of yellow pumps to add some color to her outfit, along with a yellow necklace. I moved my eyes to Reilly, who was wearing a cute green dress that worked perfectly with her curvy figure. She'd probably already lost a good five pounds, and she looked amazing. Her dress was a little plain, so I'd given her a pair of my favorite Jimmy Choo heels to wear with it. Halley, who'd been so worried about her outfit, looked gorgeous in a Valentino gathered lace skirt that showed off her great legs, along with a soft brown tank top with a bow on the front. I reminded myself to ask to borrow it. She wore bright pink, super high heels and a pink bracelet to add color to the outfit.

"Okay." I said, keeping my facial expression flat. "Well…" My gaze flickered back and forth, torturing them. "You all look freaking amazing!" I yelled, grinning. I took a deep breath and added, "And now we have to go. Let's start this party, girls. The Pretty Committee is making their first public appearance tonight." They all smiled, partially excited and mostly nervous. I turned around, putting on my prettiest smile, and led them into the house.

**I was actually planning to make this longer and go through the whole party, but then I realized how long it was. Please review, I worked hard on this chapter. The next chapter is going to be even harder to write. Review! (:**

**Hugs and Kisses**

**~Rosie**


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! But, I have a four day weekend so I can have the next chapter up soon if I get some reviews! Just kidding, I'll post the next chapter whether I get reviews or not, but reviews do make me super super happy!(: **

I eyed the people walking in through the gate to the backyard. I took one last glance at my now completely gorgeous new friends gave them what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile. Too bad I wasn't even confident enough for myself, let alone these nervous girls who had never known what it's like to be in the spotlight. Well, here goes nothing.

I walked forward, stepping lightly on my toes so that my heels wouldn't sink into the grass. Once we were in the backyard, my friends formed into a line at my sides. I allowed myself a quick glance at their faces, and was proud to see them looking much more confident than I'm sure they felt, and even surpassing that to look almost…fierce. I rolled my shoulders back and plastered on a smile that said 'I'm confident, I'm beautiful, I'm happy, and I'm sure as hell better than you'. Some song with Nicki Minaj blasted from the speakers out by a large dance floor. A couple hundred kids crowded around the huge yard, holding an assortment of different plastic cups and fake-martini glasses. I eyed the crowd nonchalantly, and was quickly assured that I had dressed appropriately, but I looked a thousand times better. Obviously, my style was better than anyone else out there.

I led my girls farther into the yard, people's eyes now starting to travel over to us. I watched as groups of horribly dressed girls turned to whisper to each other, their eyes flickering back to me often, and then over to my friends. I pretended I didn't notice their stares and kept on walking, letting out a sigh of relief when I reached a concrete walk, now not having to worry about my heels sinking and tripping in the soft grass. I kept my eyes forward, and sighted a familiar face. It was the thrower of the party, Adrian Ryan. And he was walking toward her.

"Hey, you must be Juliet." Adrian said as he reached her, a large grin spreading across his face. He was wearing dress pants and a button-down shirt with a loosened tie, just like most of the other guys. I had to admit, he was pretty hot, but something made me think he was too arrogant, even for my taste.

I smiled back, one corner of my mouth turning up. "That's me. And you are…?" I pretended not to know him, knowing that would drive him crazy. Even if I didn't particularly like him, it didn't mean I wasn't going to torture him a little first.

"Adrian. Adrian Ryan. This is my house." He replied, his grin faltering for only a moment. "Could I get you a drink?"

I nodded. "Sure." I pushed my long bangs out of my eyes and quickly scanned around me, realizing that Seth Briar, the guy I planned to match up Marisol with, was standing only a few feet away. I quickly nudged her in the stomach, making her squeak with surprise. I tilted my head in Seth's direction and she turned to follow my gaze, her hand fluttering up to her chest when she saw him.

"Oh god." She whispered. "I'm not good with guys, Juliet. I've only ever had one boyfriend, and he asked me out. I don't know what to say, I don't know what to do…"

I nudged her forward. "Just go talk to him. Introduce yourself, compliment his hair, tell him you hate this song. That'll start up a music conversation. He likes rock." I watched as she walked away, holding herself well and smiling warmly as she reached him.

Adrian was walking back toward me, that same grin on his face. He handed me a cup of what looked like coke and held out a silver flask. "Want something extra for your drink?"

I raised one eyebrow at him. I did _not _drink. I hated feeling out of control, and that's what it did to me. I would know. "No. Thanks though." I looked away, ignoring his now disappointed expression. I saw Marisol chatting with Seth, and noticed that she was beginning to look a little nervous. "Hey, I have to go find my friend, but I'll see you around." I didn't wait for his response and walked away, flicking my hand to urge Reilly and Halley to follow. I stopped when I reached Marisol, linking my arm with hers. "Hey, Mari, I found some girls who want to talk to you about that Bible Club you were thinking about starting." I shot a quick, sweet smile at Seth. "I'm sorry; it was rude of me to interrupt. Marisol is just so excited about this club I thought I should let her know." I held out my hand for him to shake. "I'm Juliet."

Seth shook my hand, but didn't take his eyes off of Marisol. "So, you're interested in making a Bible Club?"

I smiled, knowing that I'd just saved the conversation. Thank god I'd had her study the bible. Thank god I'd told her some ideas for the club. She would need to have some basic info to explain to Seth. Marisol looked slightly surprised, but she nodded. "Yeah. I was just thinking about how we didn't have any kind of club like that at our school so…" She cut off nervously. She looked back up at him, staring straight into his eyes. I couldn't hold back a smile, proud of her. "You know, I was actually thinking about making it a little different from just a plain old Bible club. I don't want it to be a stiff, boring kind of thing. I want people to really enjoy it and look forward to it."

Seth's eyes glowed. "Yeah, I can see that."

I started walking away, my other two friends following after me. "Okay girls, so we have to take a walk around and survey the competition."

"And the guys." Reilly added, grinning.

I laughed, glad that Reilly's confidence was growing as her waistline shrunk. "Yes, and the guys." I looked around, my friends flanking my sides. My eyes locked on_ them._ The girls I least and most wanted to see at the same time. I held my head high and shot Marisol a look, eyes smoldering with impatience. She soon saw me and nodded just slightly, smiling at Seth and taking his cell phone, obviously giving him her number. She smiled at him once more before stalking over to me, standing tall in her adorable heels.

"What's up?" She asked. I knew she wanted to talk about Seth, but it would just have to wait. There were more important things to talk about.

"There they are." I said, shooting a glare in the direction of the now-ruling clique of-I had to admit it, gorgeous-girls of my new school. I wrinkled my nose in disgust at the enormous amount of make-up plastered over their faces and their ugly Calvin Klein outfits. They were perfect. Maybe not in my eyes, but I knew they were in the eyes of everyone else. "We have to go say hi. As little as I want to associate with those wannabe Barbies, we have to do it." I looked at my girls, sighing. "We have to act nice, but threatening at the same time. Innocence is key. Or at least acting like we're innocent." I raised my head, eyeing the Barbies. "We're going for a confident air, but we can't all act exactly the same. We don't want to seem like them, clones." I'd done my research on these girls. They were all exactly alike. Uch. We'd went over the attitudes we were supposed to hold a thousand times, but I decided to go over it again. "I'm all confidence, even slightly arrogant. Marisol, you're playing pure and sweet. Reilly, you're the funny one. Halley, you're a sweetheart with a fiery edge. Got it?"

"Got it." They all replied. I was proud to see that there was no trace of nervousness lingering on their faces, no matter how flustered they must have been feeling on the inside.

"Then let's go. Smile pretty girls."

I rolled my shoulders back and put on a toothy smile, trying to look like I was having the time of my life. I stalked over to the four girls and waited patiently as they broke their close circle, looking quite annoyed of my interruption. Although, I did see each of their eyes widen slightly as they took in our faces and our outfits. "Who are you?" Asked the leader of the group, Allie Dawson. She had dark brown hair with light brown highlights, and it was cut into a short bob that just brushed her shoulders.

Her superior tone made me want to hit her. Marisol must have sensed my anger because she gently nudged me with her shoulder, muttering something that sounded like 'Calm down' under her breath. I took a deep breath and nodded, smiling wider, acting completely oblivious to her rude comment. "Hi, I'm Juliet Harrington." I saw Allie's eyes widen considerably. Harrington was a big name in Westchester, and everyone knew who was married to my father. The most infamous girl to every walk the halls of BOCD. Massie Block. I kept my tone light and airy as I asked, "And what's your name?" I could have laughed out loud at the expression on her face.

"Allie Dawson." She hissed. She motioned towards her minions and smiled fakely. "These are my friends, Andie, Daisy, and Lauren." Andie was the one with my hair. It was exactly like mine, just a darker blonde and a bit frizzier. I would do something about that. Daisy was cute, but not gorgeous. She had curly dirty blonde hair and was actually wearing a decent outfit. She actually smiled a real smile at us. I made a mental note to remember this. She probably would never be PC material, but we've got to have other friends too. Especially ones that can give us all the info from our rival clique. Lauren was wearing a skirt that was hiked up so that her but was nearly hanging out, and she gave us a pout. Ew.

I smiled, showing my white teeth. I had to hold back a cringe after briefly looking down at Allie's feet, seeing the ugliest shoes I'd ever seen. "These are _my _girls." I pointed to Marisol first, who was smiling with her lips together, looking sweet as a puppy. "This is Marisol," she spoke a kind little, 'hello' before I continued, "Reilly," Reilly raised her eyebrows and grinned. "And Halley." Halley waggled her fingers delicately and smiled softly, but there was a fire in her eyes that was easily visible. "I just thought we should introduce ourselves to some of you BOCD girls before the school year starts. I bet we'll all be _great _friends." I smirked at the fake innocence in my voice and turned around, stalking away. I turned back once more and called, "Nice shoes, by the way." I earned a chorus of laughter from my friends and smiled. That had actually gone well.

I turned my head to the side as I walked along, eyeing everyone at the party. I wanted to know about every single person in the school and what group they were in. I could figure a lot out for myself. I linked arms with Marisol and Reilly, who were at my sides, and pulled them towards the dance floor. "Come on girls, we've had way too much serious for one night, and we've only been here like ten minutes. Let's dance."

**Sorry for the abrupt stop in the story. I'm ending this chapter early so that there's plenty to go in the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**~Rosie**


	10. Chapter 10

**I'm so so sorry for taking so long! This chapter isn't very long, but the next chapters will be better, I promise! **

**Once again, thank you for the reviews everyone! I'd like to do a special shout out to darling (a.k.a. dreams of evermore) for her descriptive review. Thanks lots for explaining ways for me to improve the story, I'll definitely keep your comments in mind while writing. Oh, and I do plan to start another Clique fan-fiction soon. I've got a few ideas in mind for it. I'll keep you all posted on that as well. **

**Anyway, here's the next chapter. Just a few more until their school year starts, which should be interesting. Enjoy!**

'Firework' blasted from the speakers as me and my friends danced around on the dance floor, grinning and singing along. I raised my arms in the air and moved my now bare feet along the cool tile of the dance floor, swaying my hips. My feet were starting to ache from the hours we'd been dancing on the dance floor. I'd been scoping out the cliques and the fashion at the party all night, but my eyes finally landed on a pair of shoes that were amazing enough for me to compliment. I stretched out my arm and placed only the tips of my fingers on the girl's arm before even looking up to her face. "Those shoes are to _die _for." I said, raising my head to look at her face. She was pretty, but not in that totally obvious way. She had a heart shaped face and long, straight brown hair with milk-chocolate colored eyes of almost the exact same color. She had full lips that turned up at the sides in a small smile.

"Oh, thank you." She replied as I removed my hand, stretching her smile a little wider. "You're new in Westchester, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm Juliet." I decided to leave out my last name for now.

"It's nice to meet you, Juliet. I'm Natalia." She paused to wave at someone a few yards away. "These are by Gianmarco Lorenzi. Not many people have even heard of him, but he does wonders with heels."

"I've never heard of him, but by the looks of those shoes, he must be amazing." I smiled, though my stomach was churning a bit. She was a trendsetter, and a good one at that. I was usually the one to find all the best designers that no one else knew about. I needed this girl on my side. My group was full for now, but she would be a good ally to have. "We should totally go shopping together sometime."

She smiled, flashing toothpaste commercial white teeth. "Def. Look me up on Facebook and send me a message whenever you feel like shopping." She started walking away towards a group of average looking girls, but turned back to add, "My last name's Ryan, by the way." She gave me one last smile before walking off again.

Huh. So she was Adrian's sister. I turned to my friends, who were still dancing but looking over at me. "What's the scoop on Natalia Ryan?" I asked nonchalantly, turning over the bracelet on my wrist.

Reilly was the first to answer, looking eager to have some information. "She's a jock." I raised my eyebrows. _A jock? _That wasn't something I would have expected. "But she's pretty well liked. I mean, she's not Allie and her minions popular, but she talks to everyone. She always has the best shoes, too."

I smiled. "I noticed that. She seems pretty cool." I furrowed my eyebrows for a moment. Maybe we should join some sports or something…"We should talk about sports and stuff later. We should join some clubs or something when school starts." I said, explaining my thoughts. Halley brightened noticeably at that, smiling to herself. I ignored this and decided I'd ask about it later. I was about to add something else, when I felt a light tap on my shoulder and turned to see who it was. I immediately found myself face to face with the biggest loser I'd ever seen. She had a pale, past, zit-covered face with tons of freckles (and not the cute kind!) She had awful, frizzy orange hair and was wearing a dress the color of burnt cookies. My eyes scanned over the orange-brown material and dark brown shoes that were covered in fur and forced myself not to gag.

The girl grinned at me, flashing braces-clad teeth. I cringed slightly. "Hey! You're that new girl, Juliet, right?" She reached out a clammy looking hand. "I'm Mandy! It's soo nice to meet you! You are even more gorgeous than everyone keeps saying."

I could tell she was planning on continuing her babble for a while, so I ignored her hand and snapped, "I know." I placed one hand on my hip and raised my head, glaring straight into her eyes. The girl immediately took several steps back, her smile faltering and her mouth dropping in awe. I flashed her an overly fake smile and laughed as if I'd just told a hilarious joke. I swiftly turned on my heels and stalked back over to my friends, who were now staring around anxiously, waiting for me to come back. I had to admit, that made me smile. I liked the feeling of being wanted. Being needed.

I broke their circle of three and turned it into a circle of four, shaking my head sadly. "That's, like, the fifteenth LBR to come and try to talk to me in the past half hour."

"LBR?" Marisol asked, turning her head to one side and sending her pretty corkscrew curls to the side as well.

"Loser Beyond Repair. My mom made it up. I read it in one of her old journals." I replied while stretching out my ankles. I hadn't been to a dance class in days. I shooed the thought away and glared over at the Barbies.

"I luh-ve it!" Reilly grinned, one strand of her hair falling out of her bun.

I reached over to fix it and then looked away, my hand dropping from my hip. "Let's go get something to drink. Put your shoes back on." I slipped on my gorgeous satin heels and started leading them away, walking in sync to an upbeat Mariah Carrey song that was blasting from the many speakers by the dance-floor. The others were quick to follow my lead. I examined them quickly as I maneuvered my way through the crowd, pride flooding through me as I noted their rolled back shoulders and upturned chins and confident smiles. As we reached the drinks, I warned the girls about the strong smelling bowl of supposed-to-be-virgin-but-obviously-not margarita slush. I reached over for a plastic martini glass and quickly received a sharp elbow in my ribs as a guy next to me was pushed into me by someone. I was about to shove him back, lips mashed together in anger (what if my glass had been filled and the drink had spilled all over me? That would be a major social disaster, and I could not afford one right now), when another figure came into view.

"Hey, watch where you're going dude." Butterflies swarmed in my stomach and I forgot how to breathe. Two words. Nick. Hamilton. And he was walking straight towards me. He was dressed in dress pants and a white button down shirt with a red tie that was slightly loosened around his neck. He looked even better than at the coffee place, if that was even possible. The guy who'd elbowed me muttered a low apology before stumbling away, but I hardly noticed. My brain was going fuzzy, my eyes locked on his gorgeous dark blue eyes. He smiled without showing his teeth, almost shyly. I was falling deeper and deeper into a trance until he spoke to me. "Hi," He said softly.

His words snapped me out of it. I blinked a few times and pushed away a lock of hair from my face. I smiled slightly, shifting gears from blushing and star-struck to cool and collected. "Hey, smoothie guy." I could feel the anxious gazes of my friends on my back.

His smile widened. "My name's Nick, unless you'd prefer calling me smoothie guy."

I laughed, eyeing his adorably tousled light brown hair. "I guess Nick will do. I'm Juliet."

"Ah, scratch Nick then. You can just call me Romeo." The butterflies fluttered. I couldn't help but giggle at his corny joke. His eyes brightened. He liked seeing me laugh. "Well, Juliet, may I bother you for a dance?"

I just then realized that the last song had switched to a slower one. I recognized it as 'When I Look at You' by Miley Cyrus. I had to take a deep breath to maintain my composure. I let my smile return to my face and tried not to blush. "You may." I put my hand into his, which was stretched out toward me. He looked straight into my eyes, making my heart leap up to my throat. With one more smile, he pulled me out onto the dance floor.

**It was horrible, I know, I'm sorry! Just wait for the next chapter, I'm going to work extra hard on it! I hope you got some enjoyment out of reading this. Reviews are greatly appreciated!**

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**~Rosie**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys. Thanks lots for all the reviews! You guys brighten my day with every single one I get. You're all the best(: **

**Here's the next chapter. Just a warning-I don't like this chapter at all until the end. I hope you find it at least decent!**

**Also, I must give darling (dreams of evermore) credit for the last part of this chapter. It was her idea, and I give her full credit and thank her lots for her awesomeness! **

"Spill! Spill _everything! _We want to know every single detail about every single second."

I managed a half-smile, but I was so distracted in my thoughts that I couldn't do anything more. Tonight had been an amazing night, one of the best, if not the best, of my life. After that first slow dance with Nick-which was so romantic, our eyes were locked on each other's the whole time-we'd been inseparable. "We danced for a few slow songs and a few fast ones, he got me drinks whenever I got thirsty, we stood around and talked-and flirted-for a while. End of story."

Halley rolled her eyes and plopped dramatically onto the plus carpeted floor across from me, a bottle of sparkling water in her hand. "That can't possibly be all. Come on, what did you guys talk about?" I bit my lip for a moment, a bit jealous of how good she looked in a pair of skin tight black hipster shorts. My envy of her body type hadn't faded at all. At least she was still fashionably impaired-I'd picked out almost every outfit she wore for the past week.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Music, sports, hobbies, favorite things. The usual stuff."

"Did he compliment you?" Marisol asked, sitting cross-legged on my bed and munching rather loudly on some pretzels, a few crumbs sprinkling down to her way-too-big plain gray T-shirt. I held back a wince. That shirt combined with her knee-length boys' basketball shorts made her usually cute and curvy figure look clunky. At least we weren't in public.

That brought a smile to my face, instantly blowing my cover. My friends were suddenly right in front of me, their expressions eager as they yelled at me for not telling them about it sooner. "Okay, okay!" I said, holding my hands up in the air in surrender. "He…you know, he told me I looked beautiful and all that shit." I couldn't let my walls down totally, not even with them. I couldn't make myself out like some giddy girl with a crush on some boy. "He's a sweetheart."

Reilly grinned and leaned back against my dresser, popping a piece of gum in her mouth. I smiled, proud that she was following my advice. I suggested that she do that to keep her from eating too many snacks, and obviously it was working. She looked super cute in her brand new Juicy Couture satin camisole and shorts set. "You two were just ah-dorable." she said, pulling her hair out of its bun.

I wrinkled my nose at the way she said adorable…ah-dorable? Had she always talked with that heavy New York accent? I hadn't even noticed it before. Would I stick out if I didn't have that accent? Should I start to try to use it? Or should I be original and keep my normal Cali accent. Huh…

"Reilly's right, he couldn't take his eyes off of you awl night." Marisol's voice broke me out of my mini freak-out, but made me start to freak out more. She had an accent just as heavy. How had I not noticed that? "Are you guys, like, official yet?"

"Umm…no." I replied distantly, trying to shake my thoughts. Just then, my iPhone buzzed and started playing Love Story by Taylor Swift. I jumped up to get it, but forced myself to walk slowly so I didn't look desperate. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, and as I'd been hoping, it was Nick. I quickly tapped out a reply and sat back down, dropping my phone next to me. I then noticed that my friends' eyes were glued to me. I shrugged at them, not feeling like talking, and muttered, "We didn't see Spencer at all tonight."

Marisol grinned. "Well, Jules, you kinda scared the crap out of her that first night we met."

"Yeah, you were fierce. Ah-bviously she's scared of you now. It's fine with me, the farther away she is from me, the happier I am." Reilly added. I raised my head as I watched her take out her gum and put it neatly into a napkin. One eyebrow lifted up as she dipped her hand into the bowl of red, white, pink, and green m&ms on Halley's lap, but she didn't notice it and shoved a handful into her mouth. I decided to let it slide for now, but we'd have to do an extra hard work-out tomorrow.

I shook my head to get off the subject of Spencer-I didn't feel like talking about her now. "So, there are only two weeks of summer left. I have tons of stuff planned, but We have time to do some other things. What do you guys want to do?" I pulled out my ever-present spiral notebook and an aqua blue gel pen and flipped to my 'Things to do Before Summer Ends' list. I had already written down a few things:

_Go to the Taylor Swift concert - obvi!_

_Do more shopping - my closet still has more racks to be filled! _

_Be seen in public [i.e., the mall, Café Rogue]_

_Train/Get in shape for sports [and choose which ones to do!]_

_Get together with Natalia Ryan and that girl Daisy - she may be one of the dreaded Barbies, but she seems decent, plus, she might have some inside info to share_

_Bring the girls to consult with the wardrobe designer my mom hired - let them have a say in their outfits for the first day of school_

_Planplanplan and make sure the girls are ready for school to start_

I was satisfied with my list, but I did care that the girls did what they wanted to too. I looked up from my list and over at them, raising my eyebrows and waiting.

Marisol jumped up in front of me onto my bed. "Can we go to the beach? I need to get some tanning done before school starts."

I threw my head back and laughed. "You? You've got perfect tan skin, you do not need to tan. Just look at me!" I held out my arm to hers, wincing at the lightness of my cream colored and many shades lighter skin. "But yeah, we can go to the beach." It would be good to go to a beach where BOCD kids went. They would need to see us together and know that we were a group. Plus, who doesn't love the beach?

"There's gonna be a soccer game at BOCD sometime this week. It's supposed to be really important, and the guys at our school are going to be playing in it." Reilly added. I scrunched my nose up and she laughed. "Well I just thought maybe you'd like to go, you know, considering that Nick's on the team and all…"

"He is?" I asked, trying not to look too excited. Reilly nodded, and I shrugged. "Okay, I guess we can go then." I wrote it down on my paper, spending more time than necessary to get every single letter exactly right. "Halley, what do you want to do?"

Halley looked down at the floor, her hair falling into her face. I raised an eyebrow and she looked up at me. "Well, there's this art show next weekend that I kind of have to go to…" I turned my head to one side, Confused as to why she looked so embarrassed. She looked away, but I could see her cheeks were turning red. "Well, some of my art is sort of in it and-"

Marisol cut her off, "Your art is in an art show? I didn't even know that you drew."

Halley shrugged. She looked up at me to see my reaction, and I smiled at her. "That's so awesome. What kind of art do you do?"

Her eyes lit up. "I draw, like sketching, and I paint."

I smiled reassuringly at her. "That's so cool. I can't wait to see." I looked down to add that to my list and flipped to a clean page. "One more thing before we get to the movie," I murmured, eyeing the DVD case on my dresser with 'The Notebook' inside. "I think we should join some sports and clubs when school starts. We want to show people that we're more than just a bunch of pretty faces in ah-mazing clothes." I tried out the New York accent the others used, but it tasted strange on my tongue. I decided it would be best if I stuck with my own accent. "What are your ideas or preferences?"

Marisol looked over at me and popped another pretzel in her mouth. "Well I have to start that Bible Club. You guys will join right?"

I winced. I wasn't a religious person at all, and hadn't planned to join the club with her. I held back the 'No' that was rising up my throat. "I'll go to the first few meetings with you for moral support." Marisol nodded slightly, her eyes showing a glow of worry and nervousness. I wished I could comfort her, but I couldn't.

"I'd really love to do cross country and track." Halley piped up.

I smiled. "Awesome. I'd join those with you." The other two girls wrinkled their noses. "Okay, well you two don't have to join with us. We'll find something else."

"How about cheerleading? I'd love to do that now that I'm, you know, thinner." Reilly said shyly.

I shook my head while Marisol nodded excitedly. I put my eyes on her. "Do you really think cheerleading will help you? Not that I really mind, it's just that everyone in the school will _really _think you're a slut if you join cheerleading." I saw her face drop and softened my tone. "I'm sorry, you really can do whatever you want. I just think you should stick to safe, good-girl type things until this really blows over. I don't want people bothering you."

Marisol nodded and looked down sadly, as if she was trying to convince herself that I was right. "You're right, Juliet."

I tilted my head back and forth, weighing my options. I finally gave in, feeling too bad for my friend. "Maybe you could do this…How about you make it known that you're planning to, like, teach the other cheerleaders your Christian ways or something? You could get them to do prayer-circles or something before the competitions and games and convince them that purity is the right way. I don't know, but if you do this, you're going to have to work really hard to make sure you keep your good-girl rep."

Marisol squealed and got up, running in circles around my room. I couldn't hold back a laugh as she ran over to hug me. "You're the best."

I smiled, but paused for a moment, feeling the power I'd felt many times before when I made decisions for my friends. It felt good in a way, but for some reason, it felt a little sour as well. I shook the feeling off and looked at my friends. "I think I'm going to try out for lacrosse whenever it starts up." No one looked interested.

"Lacrosse? But it's so…violent." Reilly said, popping a few more m&ms in her mouth.

I shrugged. "Yeah, well I think it'll help with my anger and stuff. I'll be able to get it out while playing." I reached over and grabbed a few pretzels from the bowl by Marisol. "Hey, let's watch the movie already. Who's ready to bawl their eyes out?"

The girls laughed and cried out, "Me!" I smiled and got up to put the movie in.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

I rolled around under my red cashmere blanket on the floor, wishing that I could be sleeping in my big, comfortable King sized bed. Marisol was snoring lightly beside me, and Halley was sleeping soundlessly on my other side, her stuffed dog tucked into her arm, and Reilly was by Marisol's other side, sleeping on her stomach. I sighed and rolled over for the thousandth time that night, when I heard a light tap. I jolted up, my blanket dropping onto my lap. I looked around my room and saw nothing, like I expected. I began to settle back down into my blanket when I heard it again. It sounded like something was hitting my window. My heart fluttered for a moment, imagining that maybe it was Nick being romantic and throwing rocks at my window. I jumped up quietly and walked over to my window, opening it up and hopping out onto my balcony. When I looked down, the cool air raising goose bumps on my skin, I saw a figure about Nick's size. Butterflies flew in my stomach and I stifled a giggle of girly happiness. In a matter of seconds, I'd jumped back through my open window and tiptoed out of my room, down the stairs, and out into my backyard.

"Nick?" I whispered, stepping lightly onto the damp grass in my bare feet. The breeze brushed my ruffled hair over my shoulder. I took in a deep breath, savoring the sweet smell of grass and summer air. I took in another breath, noticing the strange and strong smell of something else…

Suddenly, I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and an arm wrap around my waist. I immediately tried to scream in fear and tried to turn around and see who it was.

"Hey Jul…Juliet. It's so, so nice to…to see you again." The voice was thick and heavy and garbled, and sent a wave of alcohol scented air to my nose. "I felt like I didn't see enough of you at the party. I thought…I thought we could hang…hang out for a little while now…instead."

And then I felt him pulling me down, shoving me onto the wet grass with his sweaty hand still covering my mouth. I knew what was going to happen, I'd read enough stories and seen enough movies and TV shows to know what was going to happen next. I wished that someone would all of the sudden pop out of the bushes and say, "Hah! Gotcha! You've just been punk'd! We sure scared you!"

I knew that wouldn't happen.

I screamed, or at least tried to. His hand was in the way.

And no one could hear me.

**Sorry for the cliffhanger! I hope you liked this chapter. Reviews would be amazing(: **

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**~Rosie**


	12. Chapter 12

**Here's the next chapter! This chapter (or at least the first part) was exciting to write, and I hope you're excited to read it! Once again, thanks lots to dreams of evermore for the idea. (:**

**I decided to leave this rated T, because I won't be writing anything into great detail. This chapter does involve a mature theme (I'm sure you all already know what the mystery guy is planning on doing), but again, I won't be going into detail, so you don't have anything to worry about. **

**Also, this chapter will skip POVs a couple times. I'll note who's POV it is each time. **

**Juliet's POV:**

I could feel the dew on the grass soaking up into my thin tank top and reaching up to my back. I threw my hands frantically above me, trying to stop this person from holding me down, wanting any chance to get away or scream for help. The person, whose facial features I couldn't see because he was leaning away from me and had his hood partially covering it, pinned my arms down clumsily with his legs and kept his hand covering my mouth. I tried to kick out with my legs, but somehow he was holding them too.

He leaned over, face to face with me, and laughed. The piercing smell of booze hit my nose and I turned my face away, but he pulled it back. I finally got up the courage to look at him, and was shocked to realize that I recognized the face. It was Adrian Ryan.

I could feel my eyes widening and a gasp caught at the back of my throat. I stopped fighting for a moment, and he grinned. It was an evil, disgusting smile that made me want to hurl and punch him in the nose at the same time. I squirmed beneath him, but I couldn't get away, he was too heavy. I kept trying to scream, but they came out muffled and soft. I shook my head back and forth, trying to get his hand off of me, even if just for a second.

Minutes had passed, and there was nothing else for me to do. He was too much stronger than me and wasn't giving up. He lowered his lips to my ear and whispered in his drunken voice, "Juliet, you should…know something about me." He laughed as if he was telling the most hilarious inside joke. "I _always _get what I want. You're no exception, no matter what hot stuff you think you are." His voice was cruel and heartless and cold. It was rare when something made me cry, but this did easily. Now I knew that there was no way out of this unless some miracle came along, and the tears were flowing from my eyes and sliding down the side of my face onto the grass. If his hand hadn't been covering my mouth, I would have been sobbing loud, racking sobs.

He pulled his hand away and immediately mashed his lips onto mine. I could taste the alcohol on my own tongue now, and it made the tears come faster. He pulled away for a moment, giving himself a moment of triumph that I was going to let him do this to me.

I caught my chance. "HELP!" I screeched at the top of my lungs. I don't think I'd ever yelled that loud. "Help! Please help!" I cried, my voice cracking.

And then Adrian's hand was covering my again, and he sent the other hand crashing against the side of my face, sending a wave of pain around my eye and my cheek. "Shut up you little bitch!" He growled, pushing me harder against the ground. "You'll do whatever I want you to, and you'll like it." I knew what was coming next. I shut my eyes tight, singing the Taylor Swift song, 'Change' in my head and hoping it would be over soon. I could feel his hands pulling at my cotton shorts and felt my tears keep streaming down my face and stinging my eyes.

**Spencer's POV:**

I walked along the sidewalks in Arbor Heights, the wealthiest neighborhood in Westchester. It also happened to be the neighborhood of the future most popular girl at BOCD. Juliet Harrington.

I didn't have to question that fact, or doubt it at all. I knew that the moment she stepped one high heeled foot into the doors of my school, she'd be worshipped by all. Well, maybe not by all, but she would surely rule the school. All the guys would be all over her and all the girls would want to be just like her. And she was perfect for the job.

I for one would _not _be one of the stupid losers fawning over her. To me, she wasn't 'Juliet Harrington: the coolest, most fashionable, prettiest, most ah-mazing in general person in the world'. To me, she was just some bitch I hated. I mean, come on , the girl slapped me across the face. Literally. Was I supposed to just take that and do nothing about it? Hah, no way.

I was armed with several cartons of eggs, some spray paint, and plenty of toilet paper. I planned to throw the eggs against her house, and particularly at her window, then TP her house, then happily spray paint some choice words about her on her garage. It might be immature, but at least it would slightly quench my anger.

As I walked along the perfectly placed sidewalks in my favorite black ballet flats, I couldn't help but doubt what I was doing. I knew I was buzzed, I'd just downed several shots of Tequila. And over the past view days, I had been thinking that maybe I'd been a little…or a lot out of line. But she still hit me, and left me with a red cheek to explain to my mother, and she deserved this. I walked faster, just across the street from her huge and perfectly beautiful house.

And then I heard the scream. I jumped and my hand fluttered up to my throat as I heard it, my blood turning to ice and my lips paling. This was no fake scream. This was a scream of fear-no, absolute anguish and terror. This was a blood-curdling scream of only three words, 'Help, please, help'. This scream made _me _afraid. Without even thinking, I started sprinting across the street toward the sound. It was coming from Juliet's backyard.

My feet made light thuds as I ran as fast as I could. I guess my adrenaline kicked in or something, overtaking my own fear. I ran straight into her backyard, and was shocked to see her lying on the ground with a black-clothed figure pinning her down and pulling her shorts off. Juliet struggled feebly beneath him, her eyes shut tight and her lips moving slightly. My heart had stopped, but then Juliet turned her head toward me and opened her eyes. My heart started beating again, now very quickly, when her eyes widened. I could see all of her emotions there, the walls I'm sure she usually kept up now totally let down. There was fear and horror and sadness. But there was one other thing, something I would never have even imagined to see in her usually strong and fierce blue eyes: helplessness.

With that, I was sent off running again. I knew I was stupid for trying to help her, when I could very well be swept up into this mess along with her, but I couldn't just leave her there. The figure on top of her was now undoing his own pants and not even paying attention. I took this chance and football tackled him, my brain not even comprehending anything I was doing. He hadn't been thinking of anything but what he wanted to do, so he was easy to get off of Juliet. He grunted and glared up at me from a few feet away from his victim. When he saw who I was, he laughed.

"Hey sweetheart. Want to get in on this action?" It was Adrian Ryan. That pig. I pulled out my cell phone and started dialing 911, and his eyes immediately widened. "Woah, woah, no need for that!"

And then he was gone, running out of the backyard and into the street. I looked down to see Juliet still on the ground, now curled into the fetal position and sobbing while trying to get her shorts back on. I was surprised to feel my heart ache as I stared at her, feeling horrible for what she'd just been through. I dropped to the ground and grabbed her hand, to which she winced. "It's okay, it's okay Juliet. You're safe now, he's gone."

**Juliet's POV:**

I looked up and everything was fuzzy and blurred through my tear-filled eyes. My mind was racing, but I was thinking of nothing but what had just happened, trying to comprehend it. I winced as someone touched me, and I could still smell alcohol in the air, but it wasn't the same kind. I stared around blankly, surprised to see not Adrian sitting next to me, but Spencer Solomon.

And then the world came back into place. My brain started working again, and I realized where I was. I was lying on the grass in my backyard, curled up like a crazy person in the fetal position, my knees up by my chin and my arms wrapped around myself. My face was wet and sticky with old tears and new ones, and the right side of my face hurt. I started to put things together.

Adrian Ryan had just come into my backyard and tried to rape me. Spencer Solomon had just saved me. Oh. My. God.

Tears came faster as I sat up, my head spinning. Spencer looked at me, her eyes shining with concern. Why was she concerned for me, she hated me, and I hated her. "Are you alright, Juliet?"

"I'm fine." I whispered, realizing that my voice was strained and I couldn't talk any louder. I quickly got up, nearly falling over from dizziness. I took one look at her and looked back down to the ground. I couldn't believe she'd just seen my like that, and I couldn't believe she'd just saved me from being raped. I couldn't believe I'd almost been _raped. _It was too strange. You see it on the news all the time, but you never imagine it could happen to you. I quickly wiped my eyes, ignoring the sting of my right eye and cheek. I remembered that Adrian had hit me. I took a deep breath and looked up at Spencer, who was now standing a few feet away from me.

"Do you want me to call the police?" she asked quietly, holding her Blackberry out for me to see.

My stomach dropped. "No. No, please don't." I couldn't have everyone thinking I was some helpless, weak girl.

She nodded confusedly. "Okay. But I think maybe you should go tell your parents or go to the hospital or something, I mean-"

"No!" I said as loud as I could in my whisper-voice. "I don't want anyone to know about this, please." I stared straight into her eyes. I knew my eyes were showing weakness and pleading, but I didn't even bother to try to hide it. "Can you _please _keep this between you and me?"

She looked conflicted and unsure, and bit down on her lip. "I don't know, I think you should get help or something."

I shook my head quickly, my now damp hair sticking to my back. "Look, as much as I hate to say it, I'm _begging you_ to keep this secret for me." I took another deep breath, trying to ignore the smell of tequila on Spencer's breath. "I'll be nice to you, even in public. I'll hang out with you with the Pretty Committee." I knew she would have heard of us already, everyone had. "Maybe one day I'll even let you join and be with us. _Please."_

She nodded lightly. "Fine. I'm just concerned about you-"

"Thank you, but you don't have to worry. I'll be fine." I took her phone from her and swiftly added my number into her contacts list. "Call me tomorrow afternoon." I started walking quickly away, heading back through my back door. I turned back and managed the smallest of smiles, keeping out all emotions that were trying to force their way into me. "Thank you, really." I turned away again and walked inside, not knowing what would await me in the morning.

**How was it? Pretty please review with any comments! Thanks tons!**

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**~Rosie**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey guys! I'm so sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. I hope you enjoy it anyway. **

Hours had passed since it'd happened, and my heartbeat had finally started to slow down. The bright, tomato red color that had before stained my cheeks had faded. I'd even showered to wash away the smell of summer grass and sweat from my skin and the dirt and leaves from my hair. A blue-black bruise had blossomed on the side of my face, leaving me with an ugly mark to cover. Nevertheless, I'd easily covered it with several layers of foundation and cover-up. I was now prim and perfect, sitting in the corner of my room with my hair in a bun and wearing a fresh pair of soft cotton shorts and my favorite T-shirt. The pajamas I'd been wearing before had been thrown into a corner in my closet where I wouldn't have to see them. Only one thing was out of place, and that was my eyes. No matter what I did, every single time I looked in the mirror since I'd come back inside, they clearly showed nothing but panic, fear, and a sense of wild madness I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was scary.

It was 10 in the morning and the girls were still fast asleep, their faces soft and expressions peaceful. I'd never envied them more than at this moment. This wasn't like the jealously I felt when I looked at Halley and how perfect she was, this was on a whole different level. I was happy they were asleep though. This way, they're left completely in the dark, and they have no idea what's happened to me. I don't want them to know. I don't want _anyone _to know. Only three people in this world will ever know what happened if I have anything to say about it. Me, Spencer, and Adrian himself, if he can even collect enough information from his drunken brain to realize what he'd tried to do to me. I sort of hope he does, and I hope he regrets it, and I hope he _suffers. _

It was killing me that Spencer knew. And she didn't even just know, she had seen it, and she had stopped it. She'd seen me at my weakest moment, one of the rare moments in my life that I'd let my guard down. Only two other people in the world had seen me like that, and they were my two old best friends from California. No one else had ever seen me with my walls totally down. I didn't like people to see me like that. It made me too weak, too vulnerable. I liked feeling in control of myself. I just had to hope that Spencer would keep her word and keep her mouth shut. I could _not _let this incident get out. It would be the end of me when I'd only just begun.

My arms were wrapped neatly around my legs, my chin resting on my knees. I looked over at the side of the room, where the red dog bed sat by the wall. My parents had explained to me that they were getting me a puppy, the breed and gender a surprise, but they had to wait until it was old enough to take home. I felt a sense of relief at that and hoped it was a big dog. I needed to feel protected now more than ever.

My eyes flitted back and forth like some nervous cat. I hated this. It'd been a long time since I'd felt this helpless. But I couldn't let anyone notice, and Halley was just getting up. I dropped my legs and my arms and pulled out my phone, pretending like I'd just been busy texting. I tried to force my eyes to glaze over with nonchalance, and prayed that it would work.

"Hey Jules." She murmured groggily, stretching her arms above her head. "Have you been awake long?"

"Nah, I just got up a little while ago." I lied easily, placing my phone next to me.

Halley turned her head to one side and I could have sworn I saw a flash of disbelief in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but Marisol began pushing herself up from the floor and it snapped shut.

I tried to ignore the look she was giving me and turned to Marisol. "Morning Mari, morning Ri." I chimed, forcing myself to look happy and smiling at the two girls, who were now sitting up and fussing with their hair. They both grumbled 'Good morning's to me. I bounced my legs anxiously, hoping I didn't look as crazy as I felt. I needed to get busy soon or I would go insane. "Who wants to go grab some power bars and then hit the park for a run?" I asked, hopping up to my feet. It was taking everything in me not to drop back to the floor, curl up in the fetal position and cry my eyes out. But like I said, I couldn't let them see me like that.

They all groaned and rolled back under their blankets. I forced a smile and started grabbing their arms and dragging them out. "Come on you lazy bums!" They groaned again in response. "I guess that's alright. I mean, who cares if we look like crap when school starts? I heard guys are totally into out of shape girls anyway." In an instant, my friends were at their feet and racing off towards my closet for workout outfits.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

I waved goodbye to Reilly, who was the last person I had to drop off after our run in the park. I was impressed, she'd done pretty well with running today. She was noticeably slower than me and Halley, but she kept up with Marisol.

I took out my cell phone as it buzzed, showing a number that I didn't recognize. I figured it was Spencer and answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey, Juliet? It's Spencer." Her voice sounded wary and nervous.

I sighed. "Hi Spencer. What are you doing today?"

"Oh!" she sounded surprised, "Nothing actually."

"Good. How about we meet up at Café Rogue in about an hour?" I asked, giving myself time to shower and change from my now gross workout clothes.

"Okay, sure. I'll see you there."

"See you there." I quickly hung up and hopped out of the car after it pulled up in my driveway. I jogged up the driveway and walked inside and up the stairs to get a shower.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

I stepped into Café Rogue and instantly felt soothed by the light music and warm, welcoming smell of vanilla and cinnamon. I felt refreshed after showering, my hair dried naturally and laying in its usual waves down my back and wearing a pretty, dark blue dress and a pair of dark brown cowboy boots. I spotted Spencer sitting at a booth at the edge of the room, reading a book and sipping what looked like some sort of iced coffee. I stalked over, trying to ignore the stares of the few teenagers in the place. I recognized a few of them from the party, some of them decent, some of them total LBRs. I finally reached Spencer after what seemed like a lifetime, what with their eyes glued on me. "Hey." I uttered bluntly, sitting down across from her.

"Hey Juliet." Spencer replied, smiling softly. She closed her book and pushed a cup toward me. "I didn't know what you liked, but I got you an iced vanilla latte." She said, drumming her fingers nervously.

"Non-fat?" I asked skeptically, eyeing the cup. She nodded. "Thanks." I took a sip from the cup with slight wariness, but it tasted fine.

Spencer looked up at me. "Look, about what happened last night…"

"I don't want to talk about that. Ever." I cut her off quickly, my hands balling into fists. I opened my mouth to say something else, but I was interrupted by that loser with the awful bright orange hair from the party.

"Heyy Juliet! Sup girl?"

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of a conversation?" I snapped, my head already spinning from the flashbacks swarming in. Her face was shocked and fearful, which warned me that I was getting more angry than necessary. "Sorry," I muttered, hardly able to believe I was going to be nice to this girl, "I'm in the middle of something, can I catch you later?"

She nodded and grinned, my moment of anger forgotten. "You bet!" She turned on her heels and skipped away.

I placed my head in my hands and groaned, willing the tears to stay away. "I don't want anyone to know what happened last night. It has _got _to stay between you and me."

"But why?" Spencer questioned, looking concerned. "I think you need help, Juliet. I could help you tell your parents, get you a counselor or a therapist or something. "

"I. Do. Not. Need. Help." I hissed, my nails digging into my palms. I lifted my eyes from the table straight into Spencer's. "Do you know what will happen to me if people know? I'll get nothing but pity. I don't want other people's pity. People will think I'm weak and vulnerable. When I walk by people, I don't want to see pity in their eyes, I want to see _respect._" I managed to relax my hands and dropped them to my lap. I was starting to realize power I had already. I had three best friends who were already completely loyal to me. I already had the respect and admiration of most of the teens in Westchester, and I'd only been here for several weeks. I was going to use that power. "You will keep this a secret and tell _no one. _If you speak a word of this to anyone at all, I will _ruin _you." I stood up from the table and stared her straight in the eye, my face emotionless. "And yes, that is a threat."

**There's the end of this chapter. Reviews would be absolutely amazing! **

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**Rosie**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys! So, I decided to switch it up a little this chapter and try out using the other Pretty Committee girls' pOVs. This way you can see what their lives are like behind the pretty faces. So, let's see how it goes! **

**Marisol's POV:**

I did a cartwheel and a few front handsprings in a row, trying to keep in time to the music pounding from the speakers. I sighed and shut it off, sitting down with a water bottle in the center of the foam cheer floor. I'd had this room, which was the size of a school gym and covered in specially made, white cheerleading foam carpet, and complete with bright yellow walls, one of them covered totally in mirrors, since I was little, but I hadn't used it in years. I'd decided to start practicing today, since cheerleading tryouts would start up when school started. Plus, I was kind of bored without my new group of friends.

I'd quickly found that when I wasn't with the Pretty Committee, everything felt off. Even though I'd only known them for a few weeks, they were my best friends already, and we were attached by the hip. I was happiest when I was with them, and I felt like I had a place.

My cell phone started buzzing, and I was immediately up and running for it, hoping it was Juliet or one of the girls with plans. My heart stopped when I read the number. His contact had been deleted a long time ago, but I could never erase that number from my brain. My fingers were shaking, but I pressed 'Answer'. "H-hello?" What was I thinking, why did I pick up?

"Mari? Hey…it's Ryan."

My heart was beating fast, and I could feel the tears stinging my eyes already. He had that effect on me. I tried to pull myself together, knowing that I had to play it cool. The Pretty committee wouldn't expect anything less. "I'm aware."

I heard him clear his throat, and knew I'd caught him off guard. "Mari, I know I haven't talked to you since…well, you know, but I'm ready to talk now."

My mouth dropped open. _Now _he was ready to talk? He'd broken my heart over half a year ago, and I'd _begged _him to talk to me, just for a minute. He'd brutally ignored me and told the entire school about everything that happened between us-and more lies. He'd told me he had nothing to say to me. And _now _he wants to talk to me? Oh hell no. "Oh?" I replied, fighting to hold my voice steady as the tears slid down my cheeks.

There was a pause. I'd done it again. "Look, I'm really sorry about everything that's happened. I was an idiot, truly. I just wanted attention and for the guys to think I was cool, but I wasn't. I was just an ass."

"Can't argue with that." I said nonchalantly, giving the impression that I was so bored with the conversation that I was checking my nails.

Another few seconds of silence from him. "I want you back, Mari."

The tears kept coming, but now they were angry. Did he even realize how many months of pain I'd been through? I clenched my fist, feeling the anger surge through me. "You're a little late." I replied simply.

"I know, sweetheart, but I love you, I really do. I never stopped, actually. I was just too much of a wuss to admit it. Please, take me back? I swear I'll treat you right."

I could hear the pleading in his voice. It made my stomach churn and the sadness ache again. It hurt to hear him say those words-I love you-, it'd been so long since I'd heard him say that to me. I closed my eyes and let the tears stream down. I tried to imagine that Juliet was standing next to me, telling me what to do. She would tell me to be strong and heartless, just like he was when he hurt me. "Sorry, not interested." I snapped my phone shut and threw it on the floor, letting the tears really fall now.

**Halley's POV:**

I turned up the music playing from my laptop to drown out my parents' yells. They were fighting. Again. Everyone thought they were the perfect couple, always so sweet and in love. Sure, they were sweethearts in middle school and high school, and they even married right after graduating from college, but they fell out of love only a few years after marrying. The only reason they even stayed together was because my mom was already pregnant with my brother. I guess they must've had a brief period of reconnection when she got pregnant with me, but that was long gone now. I didn't bother to listen to their argument, I didn't want to know what they were fighting about. I closed my eyes and held back the tears, leaning back against my bed frame.

I wished Juliet would call with plans. She usually did that every morning, but now it was 2 in the afternoon and I still hadn't heard from her.

I jumped as my door opened and turned down the music. "What do you want, Emmett?" I asked as my brother stormed into my room, his face red and angry.

"They're fighting again, and I keep hearing your name." He grabbed my arm roughly and shook it, getting in my face. "What did you do this time?"

I struggled to free my arm from his grasp. "Let go of me!" I growled. "I haven't done anything." I leaned away from him and kept trying to pull away. He shoved me, knocking me off of my bed and onto the floor.

"Stop getting them mad. They were just starting to get along again."

I glared up at him, my clothes now rumpled and my arm hurting. "Stop blaming me, it's not my fault they hate each other."

He stomped over to me and pulled me up off the ground by the same arm, sending a searing pain through to my shoulder. "They do not hate each other. You just make them mad all the time. This family is a mess and it's all your fault." He gripped my arm tighter, making me clench my teeth in pain. "You're such a little bitch. You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"Bite me." I hissed through my teeth.

He shoved me against my desk and walked out, slamming my door behind him.

**Reilly:**

"Ooh! Reilly, that looks just gorgeous on you!" My heart soared at my mom's cheery compliment. I'd gotten more compliments from her in the past hour than I had ever gotten from her in my entire life. I smiled and did a quick, girly spin, the hem of the pretty Alice + Olivia dress I was wearing gliding through the air. "Oh honey, you're just a sight to see." She gushed, standing up on her thin chicken legs-oh, sorry, I mean 'perfect modeling legs'-and pulled her purse into her hand. She pulled out a leather wallet stuffed with credit cards and picked one out, a sparkling gold one, and handed it to me. "Here."

My eyes widened. "What's that?"

"Your new credit card, duh!" She grinned, placing it in my palm. My heart was racing again, my mouth open in disbelief. My mom had never given me money before, not even a few dollars, let alone given me a credit card. I used to have to get all my money from my dad to buy clothes. "It has no max, so feel free to buy whatever you want- as long as it's gaw-geous!" She fixed her bag in the crook of her elbow. "I have to run, sweetie, I've got a major show in Japan tomorrow, so I have to catch my flight." She kissed me on the cheek and hugged me tight. "We'll do this again soon, okay?" She waved goodbye and stalked out of the store, hells clacking. I held out my new credit card and smiled, feeling the strong urge to do a victory dance.

Just then I realized how much my stomach was aching. I hadn't eaten all day. Actually, I hadn't eaten anything yesterday either, and it was already 3 in the afternoon. It hurt, but it made me happy and proud at the same time. That pain just let me know that my body was using up all the extra fat on me. I didn't consider it starving myself, more like a nice body cleanse or something. I was drinking plenty of water so I didn't get dehydrated, so it couldn't be that bad. It wouldn't last forever anyway. I'd eat tomorrow and exercise to burn off those calories. Simple as that.

**How was it? Reviews are greatly appreciated!(: **

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**Rosie**


	15. Chapter 15

**Ahhhh! The other day I was having an awful day, and then I came on to see if anyone reviewed, and I was so happy! You guys are so amazing! Believe me when I say I read every single one and take them very seriously, you guys just make me want to write more and more. So, I just want to thank ALL of you for taking the time to read my story and review! **

Juliet's POV:

It was Friday night and the girls were sleeping over, as usual. It was the last Friday before school would start, and I was nervous beyond belief. I wasn't sure if we were ready yet.

We'd all spent the past week shopping and preparing for this Monday, the first day of school. We'd also taken a trip to the beach, as I'd promised, and went to the Taylor Swift concert-which I got us backstage passes to, and we all got to meet her. Let me just say it was amazing. Me and Halley had done tons of running in training for the upcoming cross country season, while Marisol and Reilly trained for cheerleading together. It was a good week, all in all. They still had no idea of what happened on that one night, and Spencer hadn't spilled the secret, as I expected.

I'd met up with Natalia and Daisy, as planned. I'd went shopping with Natalia and learned some fashion tips that I was sure would help me later on. She was actually pretty cool, and she would be a good person to have on the Pretty Committee's side when we took over BOCD from the Barbies. Speaking of which, I'd also hung out with Daisy, who had promised me an inside scoop on everything that goes on with the Barbies if I let her have her pick of 10 things from my closet. It was an easy compromise on my part, and I planned to have her over within the next couple weeks.

I'd also had several breakfasts out with my mom to talk about how the new Pretty Committee was coming along and discuss Alpha strategies. She'd been teaching me some very useful things, but I think she was holding out on me. I'd learned more from her old diaries than I had from her herself.

Some amazing things were going on in my house-involving an entire spa being built on the third floor, and a gym right next to that. To add to that, a huge, gorgeous pool was being built in my backyard that would be finished in just a few days, before it got cold, so we could swim in it for a while. My parents had finally given me my much-anticipated puppy. She was a beautiful, all white German Sheppard with eyes just like mine. I'd named her Dove, and she followed me around everywhere. I couldn't wait until she was full-grown. No one would dare go near me with her by my side once she was big.

Me and Nick had been texting nonstop. We hadn't met up in person, because I was so busy with my girls, but I was always talking to him. Actually, I was texting him right now, and I could feel the curious gazes of my friends resting on me. "What?"

"I bet I know who that is." Marisol chirped, smiling.

I rolled my eyes. "So?"

"So, you guys never stop texting each other. It's so cute. He's ah-bviously so into you." Reilly said, lightly biting down on one of the green grapes I had sitting in a bowl on the floor. I was glad to see her eating, she hadn't been eating much lately. I didn't want her to go down that road. It was long and tiring.

I shrugged. "Maybe." I dropped my cell phone on the ground next to me. "So the stylist is coming tonight so we can pick out outfits for the first day of school. We also have to discuss makeup and hair."

Halley grinned excitedly. "And we get to pick this time?"

"Pretty much. I need to see it before you make your decision though. We have to look _fierce._" I said. _But I have to look even fiercer than the rest of you. _

"Good. There was this ah-mazing pink mini skirt I saw in Teen Vogue the other day, do you think he'll have it?" Halley asked, bouncing her legs.

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but if it was in Teen Vogue, he probably has it." I popped a Baked Lays potato chip in my mouth and added, "You know, I was thinking about throwing a party." My friends' eyes lit up and they leaned forward, urging me to continue. "I was thinking about making it a back to school party. This way I can get to know some of the people and they can see what I'm all about."

"When are you going to do it?" Reilly asked, crossing her newly toned legs in front of her.

I took a deep breath and did some calculating in my head. "This Friday, I think. If I get a good party planner, I should be able to have it by then."

Marisol raised her eyebrows. "Really? That's so soon."

I shrugged and pulled my notebook off my desk and flipped to a new page. I grabbed a sparkly turquoise blue eyeliner pencil to write with-so much cuter than a pen. "I could talk to my mom and hopefully find and call a party planner tonight, then meet up with him or her tomorrow and start planning. Maybe I could have the invitations by Tuesday and hand them out then…" I wrote a few things down and looked up at my friends. "I need a theme. Any ideas?"

Marisol turned her head to one side. "How about just a summer theme? You know, a party all about summer before it ends."

I shook my head. "Good, but too vague. We need a more specific theme."

Halley slipped her long hair up into a ponytail while murmuring, "How about a beach theme?"

I raised an eyebrow, interested. "Hawaii!" I said, looking at them to see what they thought.

"Sounds awesome!" Reilly replied, grinning. "It's summery, beachy, _and _we can all look cute in little hula outfits."

Marisol piped up, "We have to make it ah-mazing though. It can't just be your run of the mill hula party."

"Oh, believe me, it will be amazing." I smiled, scribbling down ideas.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

It was now Saturday and I was sitting in my dining room with my girls and my party planner, Alice. Alice sat at the head of the table. The moment she'd walked in, I'd trusted her completely just by seeing her fashion sense. She was wearing the most gorgeous Valentino lace sundress, a pair of cream wedge heels, gold Chanel jewelry, and a pair of D&G sunglasses that are to die for. She looked young, probably only in her mid 20s, had medium length, white-blonde hair, honey colored eyes, and light tan skin and a warm smile. She had a light accent, and I guessed she was from Australia.

"Okay, people, let's get to planning." Alice said, clicking her pen and opening up her spiral notebook. I smiled at this, realizing how similar it was to me. "Juliet," She said, turning her pretty eyes on me, "You want to throw this party this Friday night?"

"Yeah." I replied, taking a sip out of the glass of water in front of me.

"Okay. We'll have to rush a little, but I think we can do it. what's the theme? I need a general theme to start with, then something to narrow it down to."

I looked down at my own notebook, quickly scanning the detailed notes I'd written the night before. "The general theme is Summer, and the specific theme is Hawaii."

Alice nodded, jotting that down. "Okay, so since this party is about Hawaii, I think heat, beaches, palm trees, volcanoes, flowers…" She tapped her chin with her nail. "So I'm thinking, since this party will be at night, we should get some special lights to make it bright and warm. There aren't any houses nearby, so we won't bother neighbors." I nodded, jotting this down as she did. I wanted to have all the information written down. Alice's eyes suddenly lit up, "Ooh, I have an idea! Real sand-straight from Hawaii!" She started furiously scribbling down notes in her notebook, and pulled out her cell phone. "Beautiful, white Hawaiian sand, complete with seashells and everything." She held up a finger and typed away on her cell phone. "We can put it right by the pool and everything. How does that sound?"

"Guh-reat!" Reilly squealed excitedly.

Halley smiled evilly and placed her chin on her hand, leaning on the table. "I think, as hostesses, we should get cute hula-girl outfits."

I grabbed Halley's arm. "Genius!" I glanced over at Alice. "Will that work with you?"

Alice laughed. "It's your party, I'm just here to make it rock. If you want outfits, I'll get you outfits. You know who else will have outfits?" We all turned our heads to the side confusedly. "Your hot Hawaiian servers."

We all squealed excitedly. I grinned, "This is going to be the best party evah!"

**Sorry it was sort of short and uneventful. The next chapter will be the first day of school, so that should be interesting. Don't forget to review! **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**Rosie**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! It's sort of uneventful, but I hope you enjoy it anyway! **

I spritzed some of my specially made vanilla-cinnamon perfume in the air, breathing in the calming scent. I slid into my bed and curled under the covers, my cell phone in my hand and Dove jumping up to lay by my side. I looked at my phone as I got a text message from Nick. I expected it, because he sent me a 'goodnight' text every night at 9:30. I quickly typed out 'goodnight(:' and dropped my phone on my bedside table. The lights were already dimmed, but not totally off, and my door was halfway open, just how I liked it. I pet Dove on the head and tried to make the nervous feeling in my stomach go away. Tomorrow was the first day of school, and I was a wreck.

There was no way I was ready for school to start. I was already so stressed out I could pull out of my hair. Most of it had to do with what had happened, or almost happened, that night of the party. I tried to think about it as little as possible, but it never seemed to leave me alone. I knew I should tell someone and try to get help, but it would be the end of me. I had to keep it a secret, and no one could find out, not even my best friends.

Other than that, the usual night-before-the-first-day-of-school feeling was creeping through me. I pulled out my notebook and flipped to the page I'd written out just an hour ago. I re-read my list of things to do tomorrow morning:

_Wake up at 5:00 and eat a good breakfast (fruit salad and some yogurt?)_

_Shower using the shampoos, conditioners, soap, and body wash Brandon recommended_

_Brush teeth and wash face (and exfoliate and moisturize!)_

_Get changed into first-day-of-school outfit_

_Meet the girls downstairs (they should arrive at 5:40!) and make sure they're wearing the right outfits and accessories_

_Have Brandon do all our hair/makeup_

_Make last-minute checks and leave by 6:40-school starts at 7:10 and we want to get there in time to chat with acquaintances and hang out by our lockers-we need to be seen_

I sighed and put my notebook away, knowing that I had everything I needed planned out. I pulled the covers up over my head and closed my eyes, knowing I needed my sleep. But it was hours before I actually did fall asleep.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I let out a tired groan as I heard my alarm clock start beeping annoyingly. I was about to smack my hand onto the snooze button, but my mom burst into my room still wearing her satin pajamas, with her hair up in a bun. "Juliet! Up, up! It's the first day of school!" She sang, looking so excited she might burst.

"Go away." I grumbled, curling under my warm blanket. I let out a screech as I felt the blanket get pulled off of me. I looked up to glare at my mom, and she stood there, hands on her hips, returning it.

She pulled me out of bed and grabbed my shoulders. "This may be the most important day of your life here in Westchester. This is the day that _everyone _will see you, even those who haven't seen you yet. Everyone will have heard of you by now, and they'll be wanting to see you and know who you are. This is the day of first impressions, and here in Westchester, they're incredibly important. If you are ever considered a loser here, it's a nightmare to be seen as something else. However, even if you start off as the hottest girl in school, you _can _lose that in a matter of seconds."

I shrugged her off. "I know mom." I slumped out of my room and down the stairs to get my breakfast.

By 5:40 all of my friends had arrived, trembling slightly with nervousness. I quickly assessed their outfits and nodded in approval. I would rate them when their hair and makeup was done.

Brandon was already waiting in my family room, all of his things set up and ready for us. "Chop-chop girls! I only have so much time to make you beautiful!"

"You mean _more _beautiful?" Halley retorted, smirking.

We all laughed and Brandon pulled Marisol into the chair. He now knew that I always wanted to be last to get my hair and makeup done. Over the weekend, Marisol had cut her hair into a short bob, and it looked amazing on her. Brandon put loose waves in it and, as usual, applied a minimal amount of makeup. He quickly grabbed Halley afterwards, and pulled her already straightened hair into a half-up half-down do. He applied soft pink makeup on her eyelids and a brighter pink lipstick for her lips. He left Reilly's perfectly straight hair (now that she'd gotten the Keratin treatment done to it) straight but pulled it up into a casual bun. He gave her light blue eye makeup and a nude lipstick.

Finally, he called my name and pulled me into his chair. "What are we doing today Juliet?"

"Just makeup. I'm leaving my hair natural." I replied, crossing my legs. "Oh, but put this in my hair." I handed him a gray beanie.

Brandon nodded and eyed my outfit, looking for a color to use. "Good choice for the hair, but what colors would you like me to use?"

I turned my head to the side, thinking for a moment. "Soft gold eyeshadow and red lipstick." I decided.

"you got it." He said, smiling and getting to work.

After a few moments, he was done. I smiled, thanked him, and got up. I waited until he had packed up his things and left before addressing my friends. "Okay girls, rating time."

Marisol turned her head to the side. "Rating time?"

"Another thing I learned from my mom's journals. Every morning or before we go out, we rate each other from one to ten and explain how we could be better." I fixed my bracelet on my wrist and looked back up at them.

Marisol grinned. "Ooh! Me first!"

I quickly scanned her outfit, which was a knee length, bright yellow Moschino ruched skirt, along with a three-quarter sleeved white top and a pair of cream colored wedge heels. She finished it off with a few yellow and pink bangles. I smiled. "9.4. You could make it better with a pair of white flats instead of the wedges." She nodded happily, content with my rating.

Reilly stepped forward anxiously, shifting her feet. I looked at her outfit, a lace crochet skirt with a deep blue tank top, complete with a pair of tan gladiators. It was cute, but was lacking something. "9.0. Tuck in your tank top, grab a tan belt and a silver necklace from my closet, and you'll be a 9.5, easily." She grinned and bolted up the stairs, heading for my closet.

Halley looked up at me and smiled, looking confident. She'd grown so much more confident in herself and her style in the past month or so, and she'd gotten that much cooler. I nodded approvingly at her outfit, a bright pink ruched mini-skirt with a black belt, white lace corset tank, a pair of floral ballet flats, and a wide floral bangle. I grinned, loving it. "Gorgeous. 9.3, but could be a 9.4 if you grab a pink shrug from my closet." I laughed internally, I had everything in my closet.

"Reilly! Bring me a pink shrug!" Halley called up the stairs.

I stood up straight and rolled back my shoulders. "Okay, now me."

Marisol eyed my clothes. I was wearing a high-waisted, flowy, denim colored skirt with buttons up the front along with a plain black tank-top, also with buttons up the front. I wore a pair of adorable gray Miss Sixty heels, a gold leaf bangle, and a gray beanie was pinned at the back of my head. And, as always, my grandmother's necklace was lying around my neck. Marisol smiled cheerfully. "9.8, definitely. If you put a coat of lipgloss on over your lipstick, you'd look even better."

I nodded and grabbed a tube of clear, vanilla flavored lipgloss out of my new red Juicy Couture Daydreamer bag and swiped a layer on. Reilly bounded back down the stairs, now wearing the things I'd told her to and looking even better. She handed Halley a pink shrug and she slipped it on. "Alright girls, it's 6:42, we were supposed to leave two minutes ago. Let's go!" I fought to hide my nervousness and stalked out of the room and out of the house. My driver, Alex, was already waiting outside the car. He opened up the door and smiled at us. "Thanks Alex." I chimed, forcing the happiness into my voice.

We all climbed in and got into our usual seats. I reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out smoothies for each of us-I'd asked Alex to go get them earlier. I took a sip from it, grateful for the smooth, calming taste of strawberry kiwi. I turned on the radio and pushed in my Taylor Swift CD, turning the volume down low so that we could still talk.

Reilly nervously tapped her nails on the leather seat. "Gawd, I'm so nervous I could burst."

I wrinkled my nose at her accent, as I always did when the girls said something like that. "There's nothing to be nervous about." I lied easily, shrugging and trying to pull off an air of nonchalance. "We're gorgeous, we're cool, we're amazing. Just keep telling yourself that and you'll feel better." I took another sip of my smoothie and brushed my bangs out of my face. "When we walk in, we have _got _to look confident. You guys said that people usually hang out outside for a little while before school starts, so we'll do that. We'll walk out of the car and towards the school, but we'll stop somewhere to chat with each other and maybe some other people we know." I paused for a moment, my heart beating fast as I realized that I'd be seeing Nick for the first time since the party. I shook the feeling off. "When we walk, I'll give you a song, and we'll walk to that beat so that we're in sync, another thing I got from my mom's journal. After hanging out outside for a while, we'll walk inside and to our lockers." Because my parents had donated a ton of money to the school, my mom had gotten them to give me and my friends lockers right next to each others, thank god. "We'll put our stuff inside, but we won't decorate them today. We'll come early one day and do that. Then we'll stay there for a while, then go to homeroom. We meet right after homeroom to share schedules. Got it?"

"Got it!" They all said together, smiling. They seemed more confident now that I'd explained everything out to them.

My phone buzzed and I pulled it out of my bag, my heart jumping when I saw who it was from. It was Nick, and he'd said, 'hey Juliet, can't wait to see you today(:' I smiled and texted back 'same(;' I dropped my phone back into my bag and took a deep breath, a lot calmer but more nervous at the same time now that I'd heard from Nick.

As we pulled up to the school, I took one last sip of my smoothie and put it back in the mini fridge. I took another deep breath and turned to my girls, smiling. "Here we are girls. Let's go show the school just who we are."

**Sorry for cutting it off right here. I figured the chapter was already long enough, so I'll put the rest of the first day of school in the next chapter. Reviews are greatly appreciated! Thanks!**

**Hugs and Kisses!**

**Rosie**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys, here's the next chapter! Don't be mad, but it's not the whole first day. Actually, the school day doesn't really start in this chapter. Sorry! I stopped because it was a long chapter already and I didn't want to put everything in it. I promise to have the next chapter-with the full school day-up as soon as possible! No later than Friday, I promise. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Oh, and also, thanks so much to the people who reviewed! You make my day every time you review(: Believe me, it does not go unnoticed. Every review means a lot to me. **

**Juliet's POV:**

I was the first to step out of the car, my heels making a soft sound as they hit the rocky asphalt. The girls followed suit, Marisol and Reilly standing by my sides and Halley on the other side of Marisol. The school was huge and beautiful, but what I really cared about was the groups of fashionably-and unfashionably, in some cases-dressed girls and boys all standing around the school. I recognized some of the faces as they turned around and whispered to their friends, pointing and staring in my direction. I held my head high, trying not to show my nervousness and praying they were saying good things, like how gorgeous my hair looked or how cool my outfit was. I quickly spotted a pretty little area of concrete with a circular marble table, shaded by a large tree blooming with cherry blossoms. I nodded towards it and said, "Over there. Walk slow. Ordinary Day by Vanessa Carlton." I wanted us to walk slowly so that everyone would notice us and note how we walked as if we could care less that they were staring at us. "Let's go."

I took a deep breath and we all started off at the same time, walking calmly, me just slightly ahead of them. I could feel the burning gazes of everyone outside on me. After what seemed like an eternity of carefully placing my feet in front of me and praying I didn't stumble while everyone was watching, holding my head high and rolling my shoulders back no matter how scared I was, we stopped at the table. I dropped my bag on its smooth marble surface and my friends did the same.

"That was terrifying." Marisol whispered, shaking slightly. "Everyone was staring at us and whispering!"

I smiled at her. "But you looked great, super confident and, obviously, gorgeous! All of you did." I tried not to feel bad about that little white lie, I actually had been to nervous myself to even take a glance at my friends. I was pretty sure it was true anyway, though. My eyes grazed through the faces turned toward me. I spotted Natalia standing with a group of girls wearing Soffe shorts and brightly colored tank tops, all wielding various sports equipment. I smiled slightly at her, letting her know that she was welcome to come over. I pushed away the realization that she was Adrian's sister, knowing that if I let the drowning feeling take control, I'd be crying in seconds.

She said something to her jock friends and walked over. I took note of her casual-chic outfit, a pair of light, super-skinny Sevens that showed off her thin but toned legs, and a lime green cheetah-print tank top. "Hey, Juliet." She said as she reached us, smiling. "Hey girls." She added to my friends.

"Hey Natalia." I replied, smiling, as the girls smiled as well in greeting. "You've done it again, those shoes are ridiculously hot."

Natalia grinned and lifted one of her feet, showing off her gorgeous lime green Kate Spade heels, adorned with a blue flower on each. "You're welcome to borrow them anytime."

"I might just take you up on that sometime." I said. I usually didn't borrow other people's clothes, but those shoes were an exception.

"You can have them whenever you want them." She replied, fixing her sports bag on her shoulder. "Except for today." She smiled and turned her head to one side. "So did you figure out what sports you're doing?"

I nodded, trying not to let my eyes wander. I kept searching for him. "Yeah, cross country for the fall, track for the winter, and lacrosse for the spring." I attempted to stretch my ankles in my heels and added, "Oh, and I'll be dancing at Body Alive starting this week. Ballet, pointe, jazz, and modern."

She nodded, seeming impressed. "Wow, you sure will be busy. I'll be trying out for lacrosse in the spring too." She turned as someone called her name and waved them off.

"No, that's okay. You can go, I'll catch up with you later." I said, ready to go inside anyway.

"Oh, okay. I'll see you later girls." she said, smiling and running off.

Marisol stopped rifling through her cute bag for a moment. "I like her."

"So do I." I replied, waving to a few people I recognized that were cool enough to acknowledge in public. "Are you looking for lip-gloss?" I tossed her a tube of my own after quickly pulling it out of my perfectly organized makeup case.

She sighed with relief. "Yes, thanks Jules."

I nodded but grasped her arm as I caught a sight of someone. Someone and her minions. "Barbie alert." I hissed. They were stalking out of a white limo-can you say tacky?-and were walking towards the school, all wearing matching sunglasses and smirks. I dropped Marisol's arm and pulled her in front of me so that I could watch the Barbies without looking like I was. I fought to keep calm, knowing that today would only be the first of many that we would have to work to take the school from them. I raised an eyebrow at Allie's ugly, all-Calvin outfit and hideous boots. "Oh my god, what is she wearing?" I uttered, fake-gagging.

"What?" Marisol asked, facing me and knowing she shouldn't turn around and look.

"Allie's wearing a cheetah print, extra skanky corset with a super-short black skirt, zebra print heels, a zebra print bag, and a black beaded choker." I wrinkled my nose in disgust. And to think she was supposed to be an Alpha! Marisol and the others were wearing facial expressions like mine, staring at her. "Okay, look away girls. We don't want to stare." I looked away for a moment and turned to my friends. "Laugh like I've just told you the most hilarious joke you've ever heard."

All the girls burst into surprisingly believable laughter. "Good one, Juliet." Halley said a little louder than her usual voice.

I smiled, proud. I looked back over to see the Barbies look away, Allie's smirk fading slightly. I eyed her supposed Beta, Andie, and let out a huff of breath. Her outfit was adorable. She wore a pair of dark denim shorts and a lavender ruffle front top. Lauren was wearing a skirt that barely covered her but and a tube top that showed way too much stomach. Daisy wore a cute pink top and a pair of gray jean shorts. I hated seeing her with the Barbies while knowing how cool she really was. I caught a brief smile from her and nodded back. No one, besides my friends, could know that I was friends with her. She was a part of the clique I was trying to take down. No one could see me associating with her, and that's that.

"Let's go inside." I said, itching with anticipation for the day to start. "Teenage Dream, Katy Perry." I murmured, swallowing the nervous lump in my throat, before stalking off. They were happy to follow, once again forming an intimidating line. We were just about to enter the school when I heard a voice, a beautiful voice, call my name. I turned around and tried to hold back a gasp as I saw who it was. One gorgeous, brown haired, blue eyed boy was sauntering toward me. My heart skipped a beat and the butterflies retuned to my stomach, just as excited as ever. The girls had stopped when I had and stepped back a little, giving me room. Many other people had stopped as well and started watching.

Nick stopped in front of me, smiling with a slight shyness that made him even more adorable. "Hey beautiful." He said softly, but loud enough that others heard and their eyes widened, whispers and jealous words filling the air. I ignored it and let myself enjoy his compliment.

"Hey Nick." I replied, forcing my tone to be nonchalant, but rewarding him with a small smile.

He stepped a little closer, letting me catch the scent of some sort of cologne that smelled like heaven. He lowered his voice so that only I could hear him. "I've been dying to see you since the party. I didn't think it was even possible, but you look even more beautiful."

"Well, I'm not too disappointed either." I replied quietly, my heart beating so loud that I was afraid he would hear it. I could feel my friends' eyes on me and pulled away. "I better go. I'll see you later?"

He grinned, showing me his pearly white teeth. "You got it." His eyes bore deep into mine for a moment and then he was running off towards a group of cute, but not as good looking as him, boys.

I turned back to my friends, who were aww-ing and giggling. "Calm down, we're going inside now."

We turned back toward the doors to the 9th and 10th grade building and continued walking to the beat of Teenage Dream. The feeling of eyes on me and the sound of whispers including my name were omnipresent, and it took a lot of effort to not show them that I cared. When we reached the doors, an average looking guy with a buzz cut held it open for us, raising an eyebrow. I walked in first, ignoring him and thinking of nothing but looking confident. A rush of cool air hit me along with the heavy scent of a hundred different perfumes and colognes. Students mulled around, bottle-blondes in slutty skirts twirling their hair and throwing 'flirty eyes', though it looked more like twitchy eyes, at boys and others standing by their lockers, touching up their makeup.

I turned to Marisol. "We're lockers A-101 to A-104. Where am I going?" I asked, totally new to this school and its foreign hallways.

"Take a right then go straight. Our lockers should be on the right side of the hallway." She replied promptly, fixing her bag on her shoulder and throwing a smile in Seth Briar's direction.

I nodded and started off again. I didn't bother saying excuse me or pushing past the throngs of people, they cleared the way for me and my friends. A few guys whistled and I heard girls sigh with jealousy, which gave me a surge of energy and confidence. I winked at a group of particularly cute guys and they let out excited 'woops' and whistles. Marisol gave me a light tap on the elbow and I stopped, sighting our lockers. I pulled a paper out of my bag, the letter I'd gotten in the mail from BOCD telling me my locker number and combination, along with my homeroom. I stepped up to locker A-103 and smiled. Three was my lucky number.

I swirled in my combination and pulled up the latch, and it opened. It was a gross, mustard yellow inside. I'd have to cover it with red decorative paper one day. Marisol was next to me at locker A-102, with Reilly on my other side at A-104 and Halley beside Marisol at A-101. They all opened up their lockers and put their few folders and binders inside, along with packs of pencils and pens. I did the same and put in my mirror, checking my reflection quickly. I smiled, loving the bright red color of my lips against the whiteness of my teeth. I pushed a lock of hair into place and shut my locker, turning to my friends. "So far so good." I said, trying not to look over at the groups of people staring at us.

Reilly looked down at her stomach and legs, frowning. "My stomach's sticking out and my legs look fat." She said almost inaudibly.

I put my eyes on her and frowned. "Reilly, you look thin and absolutely gorgeous, okay? I wouldn't lie to you."

Marisol nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Ri, do you realize how many guys have been staring at you?"

She looked up, surprised. "Seriously? You think so."

"Know so!" Marisol, Halley, and I all said at once, before bursting into a fit of laughter. Everyone's eyes were on us now.

"Okay girls, we should go to homeroom now, it's 7:08." I checked them all in case they needed touchups, but they were fine. Perfect, actually. I noticed their suddenly wary eyes and nervousness. "You guys are gorgeous and amazing, okay? Remember that. Homeroom's only 20 minutes long. We'll meet back at our lockers right afterwards to compare our schedules. I asked my parents to do whatever they could to put us in as many classes together as possible." I took a deep breath and smiled at them, hoping I looked more confident than I felt. "You're gorgeous and awesome, remember." I held my hands up in a heart and walked away, thankfully not wavering in my heels.

I had a feeling this would be a stressful day.

**Sorry for cutting the story off before anything interesting happened again. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Review please!**

**Hugs and Kisses**

**Rosie**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey guys! Sorry for not updating on Friday. This chapter ended up being a little longer than I'd expected. I hope you like it anyway!**

**The girls are in ninth grade, just so you know. I forgot to mention that in previous chapters. **

I walked as confidently as possible into my homeroom, wishing my friends were with me. I definitely believed in safety in numbers. The teacher, an older lady with straight white hair, smiled warmly at me and told me to sit wherever I wanted. Usually this was something to be happy about, but not when you don't know anyone in the room.

Several people smiled at me and patted the desks next to them, inviting me over to sit with them. I eyed them for a split second and decided on a seat by a pretty cute boy with adorable brown eyes. I sauntered over and sat down in the creaky desk next to him and tried to ignore his triumphant grin. "Hi, I'm Alex." he said in a honey-sweet voice. I couldn't decide whether it was attractive or creepy.

"Juliet." I replied, my tone slightly clipped.

"Oh, I know." Alex replied, smirking. "I hear you're a real badass."

I raised an eyebrow while looking straight forward, paying slight attention to the things my homeroom teacher was writing on the board. "Where'd you get that from?"

He shrugged, sliding down into his seat and yawning. "People. They say you're a big drinker and a pothead, and that you get with every guy you see."

I laughed without emotion. People were so jealous that they had to start rumors. Great. "Right, that's me."

"Really?" he asked, straightening up and leaning forward eagerly. "Name the time and place."

I rolled my eyes. "It's called sarcasm sweetie." I placed my palm on his forehead and pushed his face away.

He looked away, disappointed. I smiled to myself and looked up to the teacher, who was calling out names and handing out schedules. As she called my name, I raised my hand in the air, happy to show off my adorable new French manicure. The fifteen or so people in the classroom turned around to stare at me. One girl, a bleach-blonde rat-faced girl, stared at me with a particularly dirty look on her face. I took the schedule my homeroom teacher handed me and flashed the girl a toothy smile. She jumped slightly, probably shocked that I had noticed her.

I looked down at my schedule. It was covered in several academic classes and a few non-academic ones.

_Period 1: Honors Algebra II _

_Period 2: Dance_

_Period 3: Photography_

_Period 4: Honors French_

_Period 5: Lunch_

_Period 6: Honors Biology_

_Period 7: Honors World History_

_Period 8: Honors English_

I nodded to myself, happy with my classes. I guessed they'd gotten my grades from my old school in California, which were all As and Bs. I folded up the paper and slipped it into my bag. I crossed my legs and waited as the homeroom teacher went through all the usual first day of school information. As the bell rang for first period, I had to force myself not to jump out of my seat and race out of the room. I walked slowly out of the room, again not having to push past people. They cleared the way for me.

My friends were already waiting for me outside of my homeroom, holding their schedules tightly in their hands and looking anxious. I pulled out my own schedule and held out my hand for the others'. "Let me see so I can compare." They quickly handed the papers to me, and I held them up to mine. "We all have lunch, English, and biology together. Reilly and I have French together. Marisol and Halley, you have Spanish together. Halley and I have photography together. Marisol and I have algebra together." I nodded, happy with this. I only had dance and history on my own, and that was manageable. "Okay, so me and Marisol have to go to algebra now. Then I'll see you, Reilly, fourth period, and we'll all be in lunch together fifth period." I tugged lightly on Marisol's shirt. "Let's go. See you later, girls." I called to Halley and Reilly over my shoulder as I walked away, Marisol stalking confidently after me.

. . . . . . . . . .

After first period, I found my way to the auditorium for dance class. When I walked in I was greeted with wide-eyed stares and whispers. I recognized one face in the room, one face that I did not want to see. Allie Dawson.

I sat down in one of the red theater seats and turned my attention to the teacher, not wanting to worry about the other Alpha right now. The teacher was a very thin woman with no muscle on her black Capezio boy-short clad legs. Real dancers had muscle. I didn't trust her teaching me.

"Hello students!" she crowed happily, standing on the stage. "My name is Miss Carson. Welcome to Dance One!" I hissed silently through my teeth. As a freshman, we were _all _forced to start with Dance One. No tryouts, no exceptions, even if our parents happened to practically own the school. "Your locker room is backstage so you can change. I'll hand out papers with your locker number and combination. There are clothes in your locker, but you can wear your own clothes too if you'd like. Grab your papers and then go get changed." She began handing out little half-slips of paper and added, "Oh! And I hope you didn't forget your foot-undeez!" **AN: For those of you who don't know what foot-undeez are, they are little things that cover the balls of your feet so that you can turn and all that. **

I grabbed my bag and the slip of paper from Miss Carson before walking backstage to the locker room. I found my locker and opened it, finding a pair of very unflattering black yoga pants and a plain white T-shirt. I wrinkled my nose and thanked the lord that I'd brought my own clothes, two pairs of black hipsters, a red ribbed tank top, and a pink Juicy Couture tee.

"Uch!" I turned at the disgusted sound that came from beside me ad was not pleased to find Allie standing there, examining the clothes in her locker. "I knew I should have brought my own dance clothes."

I fought internally with myself, trying to decide whether being nice would help or hurt me. Against my better judgment, I grabbed a pair of hipsters and the pink tee and held them out for her. "You can borrow these if you want, I brought extras."

Allie's eyes widened at me, surprised I was talking to her, let alone offering her help. "Oh! Um, okay, thanks." She took the clothes and started slipping her shoes off before muttering, "Shit. Hey, do you by any chance have-"

I cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say. "Yeah." I pulled out a pair of zebra print foot-undeez and handed them to her, not looking at her.

"Ooh!" she cooed, "These are ah-dorable!" I could feel her eyes on me but forced myself not to look. "Thanks, Juliet."

I blinked in surprise at the sincerity in her voice. "No problem." I replied incredulously, slipping out of my skirt and tank-top and into my dance clothes. I sat down on the bench in the middle of the room and started sliding on my specially made foot-undeez, which were red with silver sparkles all over.

Allie sat down next to me, putting hers' on as well. "You know, Juliet, I think we might have to stick together in this class." Shock ran through my body. I looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, willing her to continue. "I mean, have you seen the girls in this class? La-osers! I bet they've never even been on a stage before. Plus, check out their outfits." I turned my head and looked at the girls scattered around, most of them still not changed into their dance outfits. My lip turned up at their overly bright and not even matching outfits. "Yeah, exactly." Allie said, inspecting her nails. "Anyway, we're the only decent-excuse me, I meant fabulous-people here, so we've got to stick together." She let out a small laugh. "Only in this class though. Anywhere else, I hate you."

I let myself smile. "I think we have a deal." I held out my hand and Allie took it, shaking on it. "And don't worry, the feeling's mutual."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Me and Reilly stood up as the bell rang for the end of fourth period. "Thank god." I muttered as we walked out. We'd just witnessed yet another boring first day of school speech from our grossly hairy French teacher.

"I know right." Reilly replied, tucking a piece of red hair behind her ear.

"At least we have lunch now. We have to meet Marisol and Halley in the cafeteria." I said, situating my bag on my shoulder. We stalked out of the room, with all eyes on us, as usual. "I have something sorta big to tell you guys."

Reilly grinned excitedly. "Ooh, how many gossip points?"

I'd just yesterday taught the girls about gossip points. "Hmm, I'm thinking 10."

My red-headed friend's eyes widened. "Ten? Wow, this must be good."

"Oh, it is." We reached the cafeteria and walked inside. My eyes grazed the room, which was filled with gorgeous dark-wood tables and matching chairs, which were filled with equally gorgeous girls and guys-well, most of them anyway. I quickly found Marisol and Halley standing together by the front of the room, looking particularly intimidating. I smiled with pride and walked over. "Hey girlies."

"Hey!" Marisol grinned. "We were waiting for you to decide where to sit."

Halley nodded. "Yeah, the lunch table we choose is really important, no matter how stupid it sounds. We can't sit near the kitchen at the back of the room, or else people will be constantly walking past us and we'll have no privacy. We can't sit at the front of the room, because that's where the trashcans are and the LBRs sit. Sitting in the middle of the room is where average people sit. Sitting by the sides of the room is where the wanna-bes sit." She paused for a moment and looked around. "We don't want a small, four person table, or else we won't be able to sit with cute guys or our friends, but we also don't want one of the really big tables because too many losers will try to sit with us." She nodded to herself and stopped after her long spiel. "Basically, we have limited options if we want the best table."

I gazed around and my eyes locked on a table near the center of the room, but with plenty of space between it and the rest of the tables. It had eight seats and seemed perfect. "The table at the center of the room. It looks like its fit for queens."

"So it's perfect for us, you mean?" Reilly joked.

"Obvi." I noted the long walk to the table and decided we needed a song to walk to. "Grenade, Bruno Mars." I uttered before taking the first step.

All eyes were instantly on us, which I was surprisingly getting used to. I still didn't particularly like it, but I was learning to cope with it. I was getting more confident as the day went on, and I knew my friends were too. We walked slowly but powerfully to the table, where that Mandy girl with the orange hair was just sitting down with a group of equally ugly friends. I forced myself to smile politely and placed my hand on Mandy's shoulder. "Hey, Mand." I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

"Oh! Hey Juliet! You look just gorgeous as always!" she squealed, pushing some of her awful hair behind her ear.

I managed a smile, but I was afraid it looked more like a grimace. "Thanks, you too Mandy." I looked at my friends, who were maintaining an intimidating air. "You see, Mandy, me and my friends were just about to sit here…"

Mandy grinned and clapped her hands. "Yay! Of course you can sit with us!"

Now I knew my smile was a grimace. "Uhm, we have some friends who were going to sit with us." I lied, "Is there any way you could pick another table? You'd be doing me a ha-uge favor."

Her smile faltered for a moment, but it was instantly back. "Sure Juliet! We'll find another table." She got up, as did her excited-looking friends.

"Thanks Mand, you're such a doll. See you around."

"Yeah, bye Jules!" She cried, giggling and walking awkwardly away.

I rolled my eyes and dropped my purse on the table before sitting down, my friends doing the same. "Gosh, she is so annoying. I wish she would stop acting like we're best friends."

Halley pursed her lips and thought for a moment. "Why don't you just tell her off?"

I caught sight of Natalia sitting at a table nearby and waving at me. I smiled and waved back before turning to Halley. "Because, I don't want to seem like a total bitch."

Reilly waved her hands in front of her. "Okay, who cares about the LBR, let's get to the gossip!"

"What gossip?" Marisol asked curiously, leaning forward and putting her elbows on the table.

"Well," I replied, gazing around to make sure no one was listening. "Me and Allie…we're sort of frenemies now."

Marisol's black lined eyes widened. "Woah, you mean you guys have upgraded from all out hating each other to being _frenemies_?" Halley and Reilly leaned forward as well, mirroring Marisol's reaction. "How did this happen?"

"She's in my dance class, and we were the only non-losers there, so we agreed to stick together in that class." I replied, staring around in search of other people to sit with us before some losers tried to. "We agreed that outside of dance class, we hate each other. We'll only talk in dance so we don't have to deal with the dorks."

"Wow." Reilly replied. "That was definitely worth the ten gossip points. I can't believe that!"

Halley got up from her seat. "Yeah, that's totally crazy. That might get a little difficult when we really take over." She grabbed some money out of her bag and said, "I'm starved, who wants lunch?"

We all got up and walked to the kitchen. They were serving pizza with clumpy cheese and chicken nuggets that looked a little green. I wrinkled my nose. They didn't even have a salad bar! I'd have to talk to my parents about that. I grabbed a bottle of Fiji water and paid for it. We all walked back to the table. Both Marisol and Halley had bought pizza and were completely oblivious to how disgusting it was as they stuffed their mouths. Reilly had bought a little bag of grapes and was delicately eating them.

"Mari, Halley, the food will still be there in five minutes, slow down!" I snapped, staring in horror at how disgusting they looked.

"Oops, sorry." Marisol apologized, wiping her mouth with a napkin and taking a small bite of the pizza. I watched as Halley did the same and reapplied some lip-gloss.

"Is this seat taken?"

My heart leaped in the air at the sweet voice that whispered in my ear. I turned and smiled softly at Nick, who was standing beside me. "No, it's free."

He grinned, rewarding me with a flash of his gorgeous white teeth, and sat down, letting his brown-paper lunch bag on fall onto the table. Some of his friends, including Seth Briar, a boy named Sam Hurley, and the boy Alex from my homeroom, sat down too, taking up the last seats of the table. Everyone introduced themselves, and surprisingly, it wasn't awkward at all.

Everyone got to talking about some concert coming up. Nick took a bite of his sandwich and looked over at me and tapped my water bottle. "Where's your lunch?"

I shrugged. "Don't have any. There's no way I'm eating the food they're offering."

He laughed, which was a beautiful sound. "I wouldn't trust it either. I'm not even sure if it's edible." He laid his arm on the table and positioned himself so that he could look at me. "Want half of mine?"

I shook my head. "Nah, thanks though."

He huffed and held out his sandwich. "Okay, then just a bite." I shook my head, laughing, and leaned away. "Come on, just one bite! I don't want you to go hungry." I turned my face away, but he took it in one of his hands and turned it back toward him. He let go and held the sandwich out, which I reluctantly took a bite out of. I couldn't help but smile. "See, was that so bad?"

"Horrible. Your germs were all over that sandwich." I joked, taking a sip of water.

"You're in denial. You're ecstatic to share my germs." he shot back, smiling.

I shook my head and shot a warning glance at my friends who were staring at us, willing them to stop. They quickly looked away and kept talking to the other guys. "You're right. I'm so happy to have Nick germs now. I'm just afraid of what will happen to me now." I smirked.

He chuckled and replied, "Don't worry, the side-effects aren't so bad. You'll just turn into me, absolutely gorgeous." A small smile lit up his face. "Oh wait, you already are."

I tried to hide the grin trying to force its way onto my face and willed myself not to blush. Today had just become a thousand times better than I'd ever imagined.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

I walked to my locker at the end of the day with my friends. I opened my locker and pulled out a few things I needed before shutting it. I jumped as I felt someone tap my shoulder.

Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. Fear shot through me like a lightning bolt and my knees turned into jelly. It was Adrian Ryan.

He spoke in a hushed tone that only I could hear. "You'd better not tell anyone about what happened that night of the party, or else." He shot me a glare before sauntering away towards a group of girls, who giggled as they saw him.

My heart was beating so fast I feared it would beat right out of my chest. The fear started to fade, but only slightly. My friends chatted with each other, oblivious to what just happened. "Come on girls, let's go home." I said quickly, grabbing their arms and rushing out of the building as fast as I could.

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Reviews are appreciated! **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**Rosie**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey guys, sorry it took me a little long to get this up. I hope you like it anyway! **

I forced myself up off the ground, my body still shaking. I'd had just enough time to drop my friends off at their houses and tell my mom that I'd had a great day before I'd burst into tears. Luckily, I'd made it to the safety of my bedroom and managed to turn up some Taylor Swift songs loud so no one could hear me.

I walked to my bathroom and stared at myself, glaring defiantly. "You will not let this run your life." I growled to myself. "Everything is just about to become absolutely perfect. You've got three best friends and a growing amount of other friends. You have a gorgeous boy who likes you. You have loving parents and money to spend. You've got it made, and _nothing _is going to take that away from you." I ran a washcloth under cold water and dabbed at my eyes, erasing the evidence that I'd been crying. I reapplied my mascara and spritzed on a bit of my specially made cinnamon-vanilla perfume, which sent a wave of calmness through my body.

I walked back to my room, my shoulders now rolled back and my chin high with confidence, my breakdown just a memory now. My open laptop was making a rather annoying ringing sound. I was getting a video chat from screen-names 'Mari-me', 'RiRi', and 'HalleylovesMark'. I smiled and clicked 'accept. Instantly, three faces popped up. The faces of my best friends.

"Jules! Hey!" Marisol trilled, settling down on her bed, wearing a pair of yellow shorts and a white tank top.

"Hey girls. What's up?" I asked, taking my laptop over to my own bed and lying down on my stomach.

"Nothing much. God, I am swamped with homework and it's only the first day!" Halley complained, her hair up in a messy bun and wearing her glasses, which were sliding down her nose as she wrote furiously on a piece of notebook paper.

Marisol sat bouncing her legs as she usually did. "Do you have dance tonight?"

I shook my head. "Nah, that's tomorrow."

Halley looked up. "We have cross country tryout after school tomorrow."

I shrugged. "I know. Dance isn't until 8 so I'll have time."

Reilly sipped skinny water from the plastic bottle. I heard her stomach growl, but she ignored it. "You are going to be so sore."

"Oh well. I'll deal with it." I replied, popping a red M&M in my mouth from the bowl beside me.

Halley clucked her tongue. "I heard CC tryouts are really rough."

Marisol nodded. "Yeah, and I tried out a jazz class at Body Alive and I couldn't walk right for a week afterward. I never went back."

I smiled, the funny image popping into my head. "Remember, I've been dancing since I was three. I'm prepared."

"Andie Baxter might be in one of your classes." Halley sighed tiredly. I reminded myself to ask my driver to pick up some low-fat vanilla lattes tomorrow morning.

"I can deal with her too. And for goodness sakes, Hal, why are you stressing so much over homework? It _is _only the first day."

She glanced up for a moment and took a big gulp from her coffee cup. "If I don't get all As, my parents will pull me out of BOCD."

"Ugh, that sucks!" Reilly uttered. I eyed her face, which was getting thin. She looked even paler than her usual cream colored complexion and she looked tired. I swallowed hard, too afraid to think about why she looked like that. I made a mental note to talk to her alone if she didn't get better.

Marisol piped up excitedly, "Oh! I just remembered, I have the first Regenerate club on Thursday after school. You guys are coming right?" Regenerate was her new 'bible club'. It'd been easily approved by the principal today.

I sighed. I wasn't particularly interested in her 'all-about-pureness' club, but I had to be a good friend. "Of course we'll be there." I said, forcing a smile. I'd just go for the first few meetings until she got comfortable with being there without me.

My phone started playing Love Story by Taylor Swift. As usual, it was Nick texting me goodnight. Today I'd been happy to learn that he was in my history class and sat right behind me. I quickly texted him back and looked back up at my computer.

"So, did you talk to your party planner and get the invitations?" Halley asked. Her head was down and focused on a textbook, her long bangs spilling over the front of her face. It was amazing how well she could keep up a conversation while she was under stress. I turned my head to one side, contemplating the decision I had made on my Beta.

"Yeah, Alice came over and we went over everything. And I got the invitations, and they are amazing!" I hopped over to my desk and grabbed one of the invitations. I excitedly held it out for my friends to see. Their eyes widened and they started squealing excitedly. Each invitation was a small iPod with a recording from me inviting them. I pressed play on the iPod so they could hear. "Hush!" I snapped.

They all shut up and listened. My voice came out with hula music playing in the background. "Hey, this is Juliet Harrington. Come hang out at my end-of-summer slash back-to-school Hawaiian themed party. Let's end this summer with a bang." I continued on to say my address and cell number for them to RSVP.

"Ehmagawsh!" Marisol screeched. "That is so cool! Is that an actual iPod?"

"Duh! Only a nano though. My parents wouldn't let me get all iPod touches. Too many people, since I'm inviting the whole grade."

Halley rolled her eyes. "Who cares, it's awesome anyway."

"Hey, what about our cute hostess outfits?" Reilly asked, a smile turning up at the corner of her mouth.

I grinned. "We ordered them too. They'll be in the day of the party."

"So when are you handing out the invites?" Marisol asked.

"Tomorrow. We'll hand them all out at lunch." The whole grade had lunch together, so I could get the invitations to everyone then.

Reilly grinned excitedly. "I can't wait. This party is going to be so awesome!"

"Definitely."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I stalked out to my car the next morning, enjoying the invigorating feeling of the cool air. Too bad it would heat up another twenty degrees by noon. My driver stood by the car and smiled at me. "Good morning Juliet. There are four iced vanilla lattes in the mini-fridge for you and your friends." He opened up the car door so that I could slide in.

"Thanks!" I uttered in as happy a tone as possible. I'd stayed up late last night picking out an outfit and finishing some homework I hadn't done. Homework on the first day of school-I can't wait to see what happens after a few weeks.

We drove around Westchester to my friends' houses, which were all huge and gorgeous, but not as great as mine of course. After each of them was in the car, I handed them their lattes, Halley sighing with relief as she took hers. I grabbed my own and took a sip, happily surprised as I tasted a bit of cinnamon. My iced vanilla lattes had never tasted like that before. "Hey, what's in this?" I asked my driver, leaning forward.

"I had them add a bit of cinnamon. Your parents mentioned you liked that." he replied, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Oh, thanks." I said, leaning back into my seat and taking another sip. "Alright girls, it's the second day of school. It's not as important as the first day, but it still matters. People will still be paying very close attention to what we do, so we have to be on our guard at all times. We'll go through the day as usual. Stop at your lockers after second and sixth period." They were all nodding when we reached the school. "Alright, Jar of Hearts, Kristina Perri." I said, stepping out of the car.

My friends followed me to our new spot under the cherry blossom tree and we dropped our purses on the table. I looked at them and said, "Okay, we have to rate now." I looked to Marisol first. She wore a multicolored romper that showed off her tan skin and a pair of light tan gladiators. Her makeup was light, as usual, and her hair was straightened to perfection and angled around her face softly. "Cute. You're a 9.0. Grab a dark lipstick from my bag, that'll help." She smiled thankfully and dug through my purse, pulling out my make-up bag. I turned my gaze to Reilly and smiled. She was wearing a slouchy green tank top and a John Rocha nougat wrapped silk skirt with matching green heels. She wore assorted jewelry and a bow headband. "9.4!" I grinned. "But you need some gold eye-shadow." She nodded seriously, but I didn't miss her little shake of happiness. She reached for her my bag. They all knew that I had every type and color of every kind of make-up imaginable in my purse. I finally turned to Halley. She wore a gorgeous but casual pink dress with a thin tan belt at the waist. She paired it with cream colored heels and a tan leather bracelet. I took her wrist and eyed it. It read '12.3.09' **AN: the current date for the story is September 7****th**** 2010, because I'm starting at the beginning of the school year. **

I raised an eyebrow at her curiously. She pulled her wrist lightly away. "It's the date I started going out with Mark. He gave it to me last Christmas."

I smiled. "That's so cute. You're a 9.6, by the way. The bracelet's a nice touch. You need lip-gloss, though." As she grabbed her own purse to grab lip-gloss, I got some from my purse. I swiped a quick layer on and popped a mint in my mouth. I raised my eyebrow at Marisol for her to rate me.

She eyed me and my outfit. My hair was natural and wavy as usual and I wore a casual-and ironic-Juliet floral cotton dress by Elizabeth and James. I wore a pair of wedge Jimmy Choo flip-flops, my usual necklace, and a yellow bracelet. "9.6." she replied promptly.

I was nodding agreeably when Halley chimed in, "You could be a 9.7 if you let me put your hair into a side braid." I nodded and told her to go ahead. She smiled and quickly twisted my hair into a loose braid, draping over my left shoulder and just brushing my waist.

"Thanks Hal." I said as she finished, tying it with a cute hair-tie with a white flower on it.

"No problem." She replied, smiling and checking her phone.

"You've checked your phone a million times this morning." I noted questioningly.

She sighed. "Usually, Mark texts me every morning and he hasn't yet today."

Marisol put her hand on Halley's shoulder and murmured sympathetically, "Maybe he's just sick or his phone broke or something."

Halley nodded as I felt a tap on my shoulder. As I turned around, I saw a face I really did not want to see. It was Spencer.

Spencer looked down at her feet, probably uncomfortable under the fierce glares of me and my friends. "Can I talk to you, alone?"

I raised my head condescendingly. "Fine. I'll be right back girls." I stalked away several yards with Spencer, one hand on my hip. "What?"

She looked at me. "I'm not going to say anything. I mean, I'm not going to tell anyone what happened."

I smirked. "I know."

She looked away for a moment, seeming nervous. It gave me a sense of pride in myself. "I just wanted you to know that you can trust me. That's all."

"Okay." I replied simply, looking away as if I was bored. But she didn't know how relieved I was.

"Um, could we get together sometime, just to talk? Maybe we could at least have a peaceful relationship." Spencer asked, fidgeting with her hands.

I looked back at her and took in a breath. "Fine. I have cross country tryouts until 4, so let's say we meet at Café Rogue at 5-ish." I said it as more of a statement than a question.

She nodded, smiling slightly. "Yeah, definitely. I'll be there."

"Kay." I looked back at my friends, who furrowed their eyebrows curiously at me. "I gotta go, don't want to be late for homeroom. See you at 5."

I walked back to my friends, who asked what I was doing talking to Spencer. "Nothing. She was begging for our friendship, that's all." I lied, fixing my bag on my shoulder. "Let's go. Continue with Jar of Hearts." They grabbed their bags and we walked off, perfectly in sync. We acted as if we didn't even see the numerous sets of eyes glued to us and stepped inside the school. "Uch," I groaned, "What do people do here, shower with cologne instead of water?"

My friends giggled as we reached our lockers. I opened mine up and grabbed the things I needed.

Mandy came jogging down the hallway, heading in my direction. I groaned inwardly and punched Halley in the arm as I saw her. "Try to get her to go away." I muttered under my breath, turning back into my locker. I didn't want to act like a bitch with so many people around. I would have turned to my Beta first, but Marisol was too nice.

"Hey Jules!" Mandy cried excitedly. I rolled my eyes while staring into my locker and muttered back a 'hi'.

I heard Halley say, "Nice shoes Mandy. Where'd you get them, the Salvation Army?" The strength in her voice made me smile.

"Uh, yeah, I did actually. How did you know?"

Halley chuckled. "Shoes that ugly couldn't come from anywhere else. They look like a man should be wearing them. Oh, wait…"

I couldn't help but whisper, "Yes!" That was amazing beyond belief.

I could tell Mandy must have been flustered by that. I heard a couple of attempts at talking from her, but she stopped. I heard footsteps retreating and turned around to find her running back down the hallway.

"That. Was. Freaking. Amazing." I said, high-fiving Halley. "Thanks, I owe you one."

Halley grinned. "How about you pay up with that awesome Sonia Rykiel bag you just got."

"Ugh, fine." I replied. I would go out and buy another one for myself. "I'm going to homeroom girls. See you guys later." I held up my usual heart sign with my hands and walked off into my homeroom.

I took my seat next to Alex, who was falling asleep on his desk. I threw a pencil at his head and laughed at his expression when he woke up. "Huh? Wha-?"

"Oh, look, you're up. How was your nap?" I asked, smiling.

He scowled at me. "It was going great until you woke me up."

I placed my hand over my heart and faked innocence. "What? Me?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes you." He looked away for a minute and laughed. "That girl up there is shooting you some nasty looks."

I looked over and saw the same bottle-blonde, rat-faced girl who had glared at me yesterday. "Who the hell is she?"

"Don't know." Alex replied, shrugging. "Probably some loser."

I laughed. "Definitely." I raised an eyebrow and stared straight at her. Her face dropped for a moment before she looked away, shielding her face with her hand as if I was shooting lasers from my eyes. I smiled. At least this girl was easy to deal with. Tonight I'd have to deal with worse- Andie Baxter.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

**Sorry guys, I'm stopping there for now. I'll have the next chapter up this weekend! Reviews are appreciated as always. **

**Hugs and Kisses**

**Rosie**


	20. Chapter 20

**Ahh sorry for the long wait! I should stop making promises I can't keep! I had a bunch of problems pop up and didn't have time until now to update. Anyway, this chapter isn't very eventful, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

**For those of you wondering about who Mark is, he's Halley's boyfriend. He moved to Florida. The PC don't really know much about him. **

**Also, I just realized now that in Chapter 18 I mentioned Ryan Abeley sitting with the girls. I switched that to a different boy because I totally forgot that Ryan was Marisol's ex-boyfriend. Sorry about that, sometimes I have too much going on in my stories to keep track of each character(: **

**One last note: I'm going to put this story on hold for two weeks or so. This way I can get ahead on my writing and won't have to rush to get up new chapters. So, I'm sorry that I won't have a new chapter up for a while, but then I'll be able to get chapters up faster in the future. **

The school day went by uneventfully. The day was boring up until lunch, of course. As usual, I flirted with Nick who flirted right back. I'd only bought a vanilla iced latte from the Starbucks kiosk so he shared his lunch with me again, which I found adorable. Seth and Marisol sat next to each other laughing and joking with each other. I had to admit, even if Seth was a religion-freak, he was cute and definitely cool. Reilly happily flirted with that guy Sam Hurley, while Halley just stared at her cell phone the whole period waiting for her boyfriend to text her back.

After school was over I walked to my locker and met with my friends. "Ready for some running?" I asked Halley, who was stuffing as many books as possible into her tote bag.

"Ugh, no. I'm so tired, I didn't get to sleep until like midnight." she replied. "I can't run on less than eight hours of sleep."

I shut my locker. "Well, you're going to have to." I replied, shooting her a sympathetic smile. "We'll stop by the cafeteria and grab a couple power bars. Tryouts aren't for another twenty minutes."

"We're going to go now." Marisol said, finger combing her short bob. "My driver is picking us up."

I nodded. It felt weird knowing that Marisol and Reilly were leaving. I'd gotten used to being with all three of my friends at all times. "Okay. Let's video-chat tonight around ten." Halley made a face. "Sorry Hal, I have dance at eight and it's not over until nine-thirty. We won't chat for too long." I fixed my red Puma sports bag on my shoulder. "Talk to you later girlies." I said to Reilly and Marisol, dragging a nervous-looking Halley with me.

"I heard these tryouts are so hard." she murmured. "And BOCD isn't like most schools, they make cuts for the team. Only the best get in."

I rolled my eyes and linked my arm with hers. "But we _are _the best, so there's nothing to worry about." We walked over to the cafeteria and grabbed power bars. "Seriously Halley, we've got nothing to worry about. We've been training and working out for the past month, plus we were already in shape, so we're going to be fine."

As I was taking the wrapper off my power bar, I felt someone push me and Halley apart and put their arm on my shoulder. I looked over to see Alex standing between us, laying his arms on both of our shoulders. "Hey girls. Heading to cross country tryouts?"

"Oh no, you're on the team?" I complained, trying to shrug his arm off my shoulder.

He grinned, laughter in his eyes. "You bet. Actually, I bet I could beat both of you in any race."

I rolled my eyes but Halley smirked. "Oh yeah? Race me to the end of the hall, let's see who wins."

He turned all his attention to my confident friend. "You're on." He dropped his Nike sports bag and dropped into a lunge, ready to burst off.

"Wait, wait. We have to make this a little more fun." Halley said, putting her arm out. She laughed, "Okay, if I win, you wear one of my dresses to school tomorrow, complete with the heels."

His eyes widened. "Uh, heels?" He caught the challenging glint in Halley's eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "Fine, but if-I mean _when_-I win, you have to walk around school all day wearing any outfit I choose from the costume store." He winked at her, grinning.

Halley scowled. "Deal." She shook his hand and dropped her own bag to the floor. "Jules, go down to the end of the hall so you can tell us who wins."

I jogged down to the end of the hallway, which was a good hundred yards long. I stopped at the end, where it broke off to two other hallways at the sides. "Alright guys. On your marks, get set…go!"

They blasted off and within 10 seconds they were at the end, Halley pulling just a few inches in front of Alex. "Yeah Hals!" I said, jogging over for a high-five. "You beat him by like a couple milliseconds."

"Aw shut up! You're just saying that 'cause she's your best friend." Alex huffed, scowling.

"No, she's saying that because I beat you." Halley grinned proudly. "Now I'm thinking that one of my nice pink dresses would go well with your skin tone…"

Alex laughed. "Yeah right. There is no way in hell I'm wearing a dress to school, let alone a pink one."

I raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, a deal's a deal Alex. You shook on it. Although, Halley, I was thinking of more of a nice lavender color."

Halley nodded and linked her arm through mine. "You know what, I think you're right, Jules. He's definitely more of a purple guy."

Alex walked back down the hall to grab his bag and stalked off to the track outside. I laughed to Halley, "He's such a wimp. Come on, we've got some coaches to impress."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I stopped home after practice to shower and change into my dance clothes, consisting of a pair of red hipster shorts and a black leotard. I had to meet Spencer at Café Rogue first, but I didn't want to have to go back home and change afterwards. Plus, the outfit was rather flattering. I threw a ponytail and my pair of old, worn ballet shoes into my bag and walked out the front door, slipping into the waiting car and telling my driver where to take me.

When we were at Café Rogue, I told him to pick me up at 7:30 so I wouldn't be late to dance. I stalked inside in my plain black flip-flops and found Spencer sitting near the edge of the room with her nose in a book, just like the last time I'd met her here. I walked over and muttered a hello before sitting down and taking a sip of the iced vanilla latte already sitting in front of me.

"Hey, Juliet." Spencer said, a bit of nervousness ringing through her voice. I could faintly smell alcohol on her breath and winced. She bit her lip and whispered, "Sorry," as she closed her book and took a sip of dark coffee.

"Why do you do that?" I asked, staring at her.

She blinked in surprise. "Do what?"

I raised an eyebrow and rested my elbows on the table. "Drink. Whenever I'm near you I can smell alcohol on your breath." I took a deep breath and winced again. "You like black cherry vodka, huh?" I recognized the smell from when my mom had a hard day and drank her troubles away.

She swallowed hard, but shrugged in attempted nonchalance. "I don't know. It's a good feeling."

I rolled my eyes. "You could do so much better."

She shook her head. "Hah. Right."

"Seriously, Spencer. You're pretty, smart, and even a somewhat decent person. Except for the night we met."

She laughed without emotion. "Yeah, I really was a bitch that night wasn't I?"

"Yeah, you were, but I was too." I muttered, hating myself for saying it. "How about we start over? But this time, don't diss the necklace." I placed my hand on my beloved necklace and smiled.

Spencer grinned happily. "Yes, definitely." She took a sip of her coffee. "You know, I only said that because I was trying to seem tough. I actually love your necklace. It's so vintage-chic."

I smiled. "Thanks Spence." I liked how excited she was just that I was being friendly. "So, what does Miss Spencer Solomon's live consist of?" I asked, placing my chin in my palms.

She shrugged. "I don't know. Reading, soccer, clothes, boys. That's about it."

"You forgot vodka." I pointed out, but felt a little guilty at my harsh words.

She winced but played it off well. "Yeah, that too." She looked away for a minute. "I just want people to like me, Juliet. You don't know how much it means to me that you're giving me a second chance."

I took another sip of my drink and eyed her, assessing her features and her potential. "Well, to be honest, not many people _do_ like you, but I might be able to help out a little."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I took a deep breath as I walked into Body Alive Dance Studio, the oddly comforting smell of leather dance shoes, sweat, and wooden barres soothing me slightly. A pretty blonde lady looking about my mother's age sat behind the counter at the front of the parent waiting room. She smiled warmly at me, flashing obviously bleached teeth. "Hello sweetie, what can I do for you?"

I forced myself to smile back, swallowing the fear rising in my throat. "Hi, I'm Juliet Harrington, I've just-"

"Oh!" she interrupted me, standing up abruptly. "It's so nice to meet Massie and Derrick's daughter. Welcome to Body Alive, I'm Skye Hamilton. I'll be teaching your ballet and pointe classes." She lightly took my arm and pulled me towards one of the four dance rooms. We walked inside the room and I eyed it skeptically. I turned my head to one side and decided it was decent enough. It was almost as big as my old dance rooms and had one wall completely covered with a mirror and barres covering the back wall. There were windows to the side of the room that showed the setting sun. "The usual dance attire is not very strict. What you are wearing is perfectly fine. We just ask that you wear any color leotard and tan or pink tights. Shorts or tank-tops are fine to wear overtop of them." I noted that I wasn't wearing tights, but nodded. "Go ahead and put your ballet shoes on and begin stretching."

I nodded and realized that there were several other girls in the room. I slipped out of my flip-flops and slid my worn pink ballet shoes on before slipping my hair into a neat bun. I eyed the girls who were stretching on the floor, not recognizing any of them. They glared at me with cat eyes and pursed their overly glossed lips. I raised an eyebrow at them and laughed. They weren't very intimidating.

Their eyes widened and they stared at each other, suddenly nervous. I walked a few feet to the side of the girls, stretching my ankles in the process, and slid into a perfect front right split, feeling a slight twinge of pain from the strain on my already sore muscles. I heard impressed whispers from the others as I switched legs to the slightly harder left split. I stretched my nose to my knee and heard Skye walk back in, chirping, "Alright ladies, let's get to work. Stand up!" I got up and Skye was smiling at me. "As you all see, we have a new student in our class. This is Miss Juliet Harrington." I smirked at the gasps at my very well known last name. "Where's Andie?" Skye asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Here." I looked over to see Andie Baxter stalking into the room with her dance bag slung over her shoulder.

"You're late." Skye chastised, but she didn't seem surprised.

Andie shrugged and put on her new, clean ballet shoes. I suddenly wondered if I should have bought new shoes, mine were years old. My blonde look-alike spotted me in the room and scowled, which I was more than happy to return. She stalked into the empty space behind me and rather roughly hit my shoulder with hers in the process.

"Okay girls, grande battements. Eight to the front, eight to the side, eight to the back, then eight to the side again. Do it on the right leg first." Skye pressed play on her iPod, which was plugged into the speaker. It started blasting classical piano music. Skye clapped her hands.

I kept my mind on the music and counted in my head. _Five…six…five…six…seven…eight._ I lifted my leg to the front, feeling the burn from cross country tryouts but pushing it as far as it would go, which was farther than almost all the girls in the room. Except for Andie, of course, which made my blood boil. I pushed even harder.

Skye eyed me appreciatively. "Good Juliet. Good Andie." She switched the music and clapped her hands. "I'm going to show you a combination two times, and then you'll try it." She showed us a slow and dramatic one minute long combination involving several triple pirouettes and a couple simple saut de chat leaps. I watched attentively both times and ran through it in my head. "Alright, go."

I began dancing as the music started, watching myself in the mirror to make sure I was standing up straight and my steps were sharp and clean but flowing. I prepped for the triple pirouette, a turn I could never seem to perfect, but managed to make it look decent. I was about to throw myself into a leap when I felt a foot hit my side hard. I fell to the floor and saw Andie smirking as she finished her own leap. I ignored a twinge in my ankle and did a graceful shoulder roll on the floor and stood up, acting as if it could have been a part of the dance, and then continued as if nothing happened.

I could just feel the anger oozing off of Andie as we finished the combination. Skye, however, was beaming. "Ooh! Juliet, I loved that! Girls, cut the leap and do the shoulder roll that she did. Could you do that again, Juliet?" I smiled and moved up to the front of the room. I quickly did the roll again and loved the jealous stares coming from the other girls in the room. "That's just beautiful." Skye cooed. "Run it again girls!"

**Thanks for reading! Remember, the next chapter won't be up for a while. Reviews are appreciated!**

**Hugs and Kisses**

**Rosie**


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